RIKEN Wako Institute Nishina Center for Accelerator Based Science Radiation Biology Team Deputy Laboratory Head: Dr. Tomoko Abe Graduate School of Tohoku University, Life Science Course Associate Professor: Dr. Masashi Sato
Production of salt-resistant mutants of rice by heavy-ion beam: the world new mutants from "Nipponbare" which can grow under salty conditions
The fall people can taste new crop of rice has come; rice has been Japanese main food since Yayoi era and rice is very familiar to all of us. Rice is one of worldwide main food resources including wheat and maize as well. In recent years, however, crop yield of rice has been reduced due to gradual accumulation of salts in the rice field soil (called soil salination) in many countries of the world. The development of salt-resistant rice cultivar is suggested to be one of the answers against the soil salination problem. The group of the Radiation Biology Team in the Nishina Center for Accelerator Based Science and Tohoku University succeeded in the development of salt-resistant mutants of Nipponbare through carbon ions accelerated by RIKEN Ring cyclotron; what a big success for such a short time of attempts as two years was! The mutants grow ordinarily even under 1.5-fold more saline paddy field compared with that of Nipponbare. By parental use of the mutant strains, it is highly expected to be prevalent cultivation of the mutant rice strains in the water fields ruined by the soil salination. The research details are reported in the 110th Meeting of Japanese Society of Breeding at Ehime University, September 21-23, 2006.
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