High radiation use efficiency improves yield in the recently developed elite hybrid rice Y-liangyou 900

•Breeding effects on higher radiation use efficiency was detected for yield progress in super hybrid rice cultivars.•Radiation use efficiency contributed more to higher grain yield compared with harvest index.•N supply increased intercepted radiation and intercepted percentage but not radiation use efficiency. Yield potential in super hybrid rice has continued to increase in recent decades through morphological improvements and the use of inter-subspecific heterosis. Radiation use efficiency (RUE) has been singled out as an important determinant of grain yield in cereal species. However, it is not known whether yield increases in super hybrid rice breeding programs have involved improvements in RUE. Three-year field experiments evaluated the effects of breeding on grain yield and its physiological determinants, including RUE, intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (IPAR), aboveground biomass production, and harvest index (HI), in three representative super hybrid rice varieties released between 1999 and 2015 and grown under three N regimes (N0: 0 kg ha–1, N1: 210 kg ha−1, N2: 300 kg ha–1). Grain yield in the recently developed super hybrid rice cultivar Y-liangyou 900 (YLY900) increased significantly, relative to Liangyoupeijiu (LYPJ) and Y-liangyou 2 (YLY2), reaching more than 11 t ha–1 in the N2 treatment each year. Yield improvements in YLY900 were primarily due to increased aboveground biomass production resulting from a higher RUE, being 10.6 % (biomass) and 12.1 % (RUE) higher than those in LYPJ and YLY2. Unlike YLY900, aboveground biomass accumulation in LYPJ and YLY2 mostly resulted from increased IPAR. Nitrogen supply significantly increased intercepted radiation and intercepted percentage but not RUE. The N treatments had no effect on HI, within or between varieties. Grain yield had a significant (P