Tailoring rice plants for sustainable yield through ideotype breeding and physiological interventions

The success of yield-improvement programmes hinges on the accurate selection of parents from which to generate superior breeding populations, and the selection of high-yielding genotypes from early-segregating generations. Development of the ideotype concept has focused the attention of plant physiologists and breeders on the identification of simple morphological characters which influence physiological processes determining yield. A major advantage in breeding for ideotype is that genes for certain characters can be easily introgressed from the related species with aid of biotechnological interventions. Characters such as leaf inclination and leaf shape are often simply inherited and can greatly influence crop canopy structure and radiation interception. Such characters could be rapidly modified by selection to increase crop photosynthesis and yield. This review provides integrated information on these relationships and gives plant breeders a blueprint of the characteristics of high-yielding cultivars of rice in specified environments. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]