History and Results of Rice Breeding in Korea

Abstract

Rice research in Korea during the past 100 years has gone through tremendous changes and improvements as the country underwent a turbulent history of transformation. Full-scale R&D modernization began in the 1970s, when the government focused policy on achieving self-sufficiency in rice in order to establish the foundation for national economic growth. A major landmark was reached by the development of the rice variety "Tongil" and its cultivation technology, which was at the core of the unprecedented Korean "Green Revolution". Since achieving self-sufficiency in rice, the breeding goal of Korea moved from increasing yield to improving grain quality as more consumers began to seek high quality food products in the 1980s. This change led to the establishment of the high quality rice breeding platform for enhancing the global competitiveness of Korean rice to cope with the opening of domestic rice market in the 2000s. Currently, the major breeding goals in rice are developing premium quality cultivars for table rice and specialized cultivars for boosting processed food industry. To date, the National Institute of Crop Science has released a total of 300 rice cultivars, including 202 table rice and 98 specialized usage cultivars. Diverse technologies have been developed and utilized for breeding new rice cultivars to meet changing needs. In the next 100 years of rice breeding, the convergence of traditional crop improvement technologies and the new breeding technologies utilizing recent advances in biotechnology will play a crucial role in enhancing breeding efficiency.

Transcriptional Changes in the Developing Rice Seeds Under Salt Stress Suggest Targets for Manipulating Seed Quality

“…We selected Samgwang, a japonica rice cultivar, with high palatability for this study, because Samgwang is one of the 18 premium rice cultivars registered in Korea and has the largest cultivation area in Chungcheongnam-do ( Cho et al, 2020 ). We then examined the agronomic traits of Samgwang, grown on NL and RL ( Figure 1 ) and confirmed the apparent damage caused by salt stress in unhulled and brown rice of Samgwang grown on RL, but not in those on NL.…”

“…We selected Samgwang, a japonica rice cultivar, with high palatability for this study, because Samgwang is one of the 18 premium rice cultivars registered in Korea and has the largest cultivation area in Chungcheongnam-do (Cho et al, 2020).…”

Effects of genotype and environmental factors on content variations of the bioactive constituents in rice seeds

“…최근 기능성 식품에 대한 관심이 커지면서 쌀의 소비가 단순한 식사 목적을 넘어 영양적인 면으로 고려되고 있으며, 항산화 효과 등 건강 기능성을 부여한 다양한 품종 개발과 이에 따른 생리활성 연구 도 활발히 이루어지고 있다 [3,4]. 국내에서는 쌀 소비 장려 정 책에 따라 인디카 품종과 자포니카 품종의 원연교잡을 통해 통 일형 벼 품종을 개발하고 보급하였다 [5]. 쌀에는 phytosterol, policosanol과 같은 다양한 기능성 성분들 이 함유되어 있다고 알려져 있다.…”