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Researchers make hybrid rice fight yield-cutting bacteria


Agriculture research scientists in Los Baños, Laguna found a way to make two strains of hybrid rice endure bacterial infection and made it possible for farmers of the rice varieties to avoid up to 40 percent of harvest loss. Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) plant breeder Dr. Dindo A. Tabanao and his team said the genes were “incorporated" into the hybrid rice lines known as Mestiso 1 and Mestiso 3, through a process called “gene pyramiding." Mestiso 1 rice has a yield of up to 9.9 tons per hectare (t/ha) and 123 days of maturity while the Mestiso 3 can produce up to 8.6 t/ha and mature in 106 days. Tabanao explained that gene pyramiding is the introduction of multiple target genes from different parental donors into a single genotype. He said they took two or three genes that provide resistance to bacterial blight and introduced it to the hybrid rice strains. Bacterial blight has been a major constraint in the planting and harvesting of hybrid rice with yield losses between 30 percent and 40 percent having been recorded. The infection manifests two to six weeks after seedling stage and shows up as water-soaked to yellowish stripes on leaf blades. The members of Tabanao’s team are Jovelyn Unay and Edwin Rico Jr. of PhilRice, Lucia Borines of Visayas State University, and Casiana Vera Cruz of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). PhilRice is a government-owned and controlled corporation attached to the Department of Agriculture. It develops technologies to enable farmers to plant high-yielding rice at lower cost using environment-friendly techniques. — ELR/VS, GMA News

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