Development of Rainfed-adapted, Fertilizer-efficient Temperate Rice Varieties by Pup1 Introgression

Water and phosphorus (P) fertilizer are two of the most critical inputs in rice cultivation. Under climate change scenarios and urbanization, irrigation and fertilizer are becoming limiting factors often leading to significant decrease in yield whenever supplied scarcely. It has been shown that the Pup1 QTL confers tolerance to P starvation and improved early-stage root vigor in indica rice grown in the tropics. However, whether the QTL works in japonica rice genetic background grown in temperate regions remains to be elucidated. Here, we have introgressed the Pup1 QTL into three temperate rice varieties MS11, TR22183, and Dasan using marker-assisted backcrossing and next generation sequencing. The selected lines all harbored the full Pup1 QTL with recurrent parent genome recovery rates ranging from 66.5% to 99.8%. Evaluation of the introgression rice lines grown in South Korea under low inputs of P and water revealed early vegetative growth advantage relative to that of the recurrent parents. Under rainfed condition, Pup1 introgression lines had yield advantage ranging from 7.2 to 19.9% and 24 to 26% in P non-supplied soil and P-supplied soil, respectively compared to that of the recurrent parents suggesting that Pup1 confers enhanced yield under low P and water inputs in temperate rice genetic background grown in temperate climate. In terms of early vegetative growth, temperate Pup1 introgression lines showed a similar trend on the extent to which Pup1 promotes yield advantage in temperate rice in comparison with indica control Pup1 introgression line IR64-Pup1.