Agronomic performance of several doubled-haploid lines derived from anther culture of black rice × white rice

Black rice is a well-known type of rice in Indonesia, but its availability is still limited. So far, only one black rice variety that has been released by rice breeders. Recently, public demand for black rice increases due to its health benefits. Therefore, the development of new variety of black rice is needed. Anther culture is often used to accelerate the process in obtaining homozygous lines in the form of doubled-haploid (DH) plants for rice breeding. This research aimed to evaluate the agronomic performance of several DH lines derived from anther culture. The experiment was conducted at Sukamandi, West Java, during the dry season of 2017. Plant materials used in this study were 13 DH lines derived from anther culture of F1s and five improved varieties as control. The F1s were obtained from crosses between local black rice Melik with two white rice varieties, Inpari 13 or Fatmawati. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Observation was conducted on plant height, number of productive tiller, days to flower, days to harvest, panicle length, number of grain per panicle, number of filled and empty grain number per panicle, yield, and pericarp color. The results showed that plant height, number of tillers, yield and yield components of DH lines were significantly different compared to some of the control varieties. Ten DH lines were similar in yield compared to Inpari 13, but five of them produced higher yield than Inpari 13. Days to flower of DH lines and control varieties were similar (75-89 days). The pericarp color of DH lines varies from dark purple to reddish-brown (maroon).