Development of a new fragrant and good eating quality rice variety with stripe virus disease resistance by molecular marker-assisted gene pyramiding

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple crops providing near half of the global population. With the advance of living standards, people demand for novel rice varieties with better quality of eating and fragrance. Unfortunately, the practical application of pesticides to control rice stripe disease results a significant deterioration of rice quality and nutrition. Therefore, it is an urgent need to develop disease resistant rice varieties with good eating quality and fragrance. Here, we present the strategy and practical development of a new rice variety, Shangshida No. 15, by molecular markerassisted gene pyramiding. ‘Shangshida No. 15’ displayed the aroma trait and the same good eating quality phenotypes as that of Jinfeng rice, a famous rice variety for its good eating quality and high yield in the Yangtze River region of China. Shangshida No. 15 exhibited significantly higher average plant height and 1000-grain weight, while its growth duration was approximately 2 weeks shorter than those of Jinfeng. In conclusion, our study demonstrated a breeding strategy for obtaining high quality rice through molecular marker-assisted gene pyramiding, and the resulting new variety could facilitate further attempts to develop more high eating quality rice varieties together with stripe disease-resistant traits without affecting yields.