Detection of genetic factors responsible for grain quality and cooking characteristics of Japanese rice cultivars

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important foodcrop in the world, as it is a staple foodfor more than half of the world's population. Rice grain quality largely determines its market price and consumer acceptance. Rice grain quality is determined by a set of complex traits encompassing a wide range of characteristics including processing suitability of rice flour andcooking characteristics of cookedrice grain. Decoding the rice genome sequence provides a distinct advantage in the isolation of important genes associated with grain quality and cooking characteristics of rice. Recently, we identified one of the genes responsible for biosynthesis of storage protein in rice endosperm and a genetic factor in the eating quality of cookedrice grain. These genetic factors couldbe exploitedfor the development of novel rice cultivars with high grain quality.