Oryza nivara Sharma et Shastry

Oryza nivara is the closest annual wild progenitor of O. sativa subspecies indica distributed in South and Southeast Asia. The accessions of O. nivara are well known to contribute genes for resistance to biotic stresses; grassy stunt virus, bacterial leaf blight, sheath blight, neck blast, brown planthopper and tolerance to abiotic stresses; drought, salinity and heat for rice improvement. In addition, loci for yield, seedling vigour, quality and biofortification were also reported from O. nivara. It has accessions with high leaf photosynthetic efficiency. DRRDhan 40 is the first O. nivara-derived variety released in 2014 in India for commercial cultivation in three states Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Chromosome segment substitution lines have been developed using O. nivara to map genes and quantitative trait loci. Genome sequencing and annotation of O. nivara in Oryza map alignment project (OMAP) revealed a genome size of 448 Mb and 36,313 coding and 1648 noncoding genes. This will help further in gene editing and silencing technology based on future breeding programmes. The development of CSSLs from O. nivara will help in more precise utilization for basic and applied studies.