Summary

Rice was domesticated in Asia but the range of the wild species from which rice was domesticated extends to northern Australia. Australian wild populations retain predomestication diversity that has apparently been lost outside Australia due largely to the impact of domestication. Recent research has highlighted the international significance of this Australia genetic resource for rice improvement globally. The genetics of wild Australian populations is just emerging and structured collections are now required to define population diversity and taxonomy. Novel qualities that may be promoted as having health benefits will be selected in this germplasm. Initial crosses will be made with Australian varieties to capture useful new attributes. Australian wild rice will be developed both for cultivation as a novel species and as a genetic resource for domesticated rice.

Program

New and Emerging Plant Industries

Research Organisation

The University of Queensland

Objective Summary

Workshop: A workshop on Australian wild rice will be held in April 2012 to review research on this topic and to allow analysis of collections to date and define needs for further collection.
Collection: Wild rice from north Queensland populations will be collected to establish a public germplasm collection to complement and fill gaps in earlier collections. A seed collection, living plant collection and DNA collection will be developed. Existing collections often include seed or DNA bulked form more than one plant. The populations now require structured sampling to define genetic structure and taxonomic relationships. A Ph D student will be engaged to conduct this study.
Screening: The collected material will be screened for useful for useful variation quality traits that will give a health marketing advantage.
Crossing: Selected lines will be crossed with Australian domesticated rice varieties to provide foundation germplasm for selection of varieties incorporating new diversity and useful traits and also to identify material of value as wild rice cultivars.