Challenges and prospects in using biotechnological interventions in O. glaberrima, an African cultivated rice

Abstract

Africa has the world’s fastest rate of population expansion, making it vulnerable to food shortages. Africa cultivates two types of rice (Asian rice; Oryza sativa and African rice; Oryza glaberrima). Native African rice called O. glaberrima has some intriguing characteristics, including resistance to several biotic and abiotic regional restrictions in Africa. However, O. glaberrima is solely employed as a tool to increase the production of O. sativa, which cannot grow in Africa, due to its low yield, lodging, grain breaking, and poor tissue culture ability. Enhancing breeding efforts for O. glaberrima is therefore critically important. The protocols for transformation and regeneration, however, are mostly for O. sativa and not O. glaberrima. This study examines the present problems with transformation and regeneration for African rice species as well as potential solutions for using modern breeding methods in O. glaberrima.