Harvesting the Genetic Diversity of Rice
J. Damien Platten, IRRI
Abstract: Meeting the challenges facing humanity over the next 50 years will require an ever more concerted effort to improve crop yields per acre of land, per unit of water, and the reliability of harvests. Central to making these improvements will be better integration of the genetic diversity found in traditional cultivars and even wild relatives into mainstream breeding efforts. This review will highlight some successes – and failures – in harvesting this genetic diversity in rice breeding, and explore some prospects for making better use of such resources moving forward.
Bio: A graduate of the University of Tasmania, Australia, Damien has worked at the CSIRO (Australia) and International Rice Research Institute (Philippines) using genomics tools to identify candidate genes for abiotic stress tolerance QTLs in wheat and rice. Currently he is heavily involved in bridging divisions between the breeding programs and the IRRI genebank.
