A New Approach for Glutinous Rice Breeding through Dull Genes Pyramiding

Glutinous rice is a key grain quality trait occupying an important part during rice processing in most rice growing areas. In this study, a gene pyramiding approach was used to introduce two dull genes, responsible for low amylose content, for glutinous rice breeding using marker assisted selection (MAS). The genotyping results revealed that rice cultivar Milyang319 carries both dull genes on chromosome 6, derived from cv. Milky-queen (Wx-mq) and cv. LGS-soft (du12(t)), respectively. Milyang319 had a significantly low amylose content (9.0%) compared to those observed in donor parents Milky-queen (15.7%) and LGS-soft (14.5%). In addition, the amylogram analysis of Milyang319 showed a similar pattern of glutinous rice. Originally, Milyang319 had a low hardness and more stickiness compared to those recorded in cooked rice of both dull parental lines. Therefore, Milyang319 is proposed as a promising candidate rice cultivar that could be used as a new source of waxy germplasms with same physicochemical features of glutinous rice in further breeding programs.