Oryza longistaminata A. Chev. and Röhr

Abstract

Oryza longistaminata is a distantly related wild rice relative found only in Africa. It is agronomically inferior to cultivated rice but possesses several latent useful traits that can be used to improve agronomically important traits in cultivated rice. These useful traits include strong rhizomes, a vigorous biomass, drought avoidance mechanisms, good weed suppression ability via allelopathy, and high nitrogen-use efficiency. It also possesses resistance to several biotic stresses such as brown plant hopper, nematodes, yellow stem borer, rice tungro bacilliform virus, blast, and bacterial blight. Recent studies have revealed that it is a good source of new alleles that can be used to improve yield-related traits in cultivated rice varieties. However, this potential is not well studied and is therefore not optimally exploited. Advances in genomics such as the release of whole genome reference sequence are offering opportunities for enhanced use of this species and its genetic resources. In this chapter, efforts were made to review current knowledge on O. longistaminata by addressing phenotypic and molecular studies conducted on this species. The use of advances in DNA sequencing in understanding the potential of this species and dissecting the molecular mechanism underlying various useful traits is highlighted.