Following the Frontier of Scientific and Technological Development, Significant Progress Has Been Made in Molecular Rice Breeding ─ A Brief Introduction to the Work in Molecular Rice Breeding of Rice Research Institute of Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Rice is the main staple food for over 60% of the population in China and plays a crucial role in food security.With the increase of population, the decrease of arable land and the impact of global climate change, the phenotype-based conventional rice breeding can not meet the increasing demand for rice. Identification of favorable genes associated with important traits and performing efficient and precise molecular breeding have been considered the fundamental way to realize the third breakthrough in rice breeding and ensure food security. To further improve the capacity and technical level of rice breeding, with the strong support from the government at various levels, “Guangdong Key Laboratory of New Technologies in Rice Breeding” and the“Guangzhou Branch of China National Center for Rice Improvement”were constructed in Rice Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences（hereinafter called the Institute）. Based on these labs, through making good use of the abundant rice germplasm resources and the strength in conventional rice breeding of the Institute, large-scale identification of genes associated with important traits was conducted and marker-assisted selection （MAS） was performed, and significant achievements have been made. This paper reviewed the major progresses in the construction of rice molecular breeding technology platform in the Institute, identification of important trait genes since 1992, in particular the molecular genetic researches of blast resistance, cold tolerance and harvest index, and MAS-based molecular rice breeding. In addition, the future prospects in molecular rice breeding was also discussed.