EVALUATION OF GRAIN QUALITY AND NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF DOUBLE HAPLOID DHP6, AN ELITE RICE LINE IN MADAGASCAR

Anther/pollen culture technology is being efficiently used for accelerating rice breeding progress and improving grain quality characters. Using pollen culture technique, we obtained elite rice (Oryza sativa L.) line DHP6, which is well adapted to the highlands of Madagascar. Here we show that certain grain, nutritional, and culinary quality characteristics have been significantly improved in line DHP6. Morphometric and physico-chemical analysis demonstrated that physical (colour, transluscency, and chalkiness), chemical (amylose content, alkali spreading value, and gel consistency) and cooking (volume expansion, elongation ratio) features were greatly improved compared to the parental line. Culinary and nutritional quality analyses showed a significant increase in nutritional values and mineral richness. Some desired concentrations of minerals like Mg and Cu were much higher (e.g. three times richer in Cu) than those of its parental line (variety IR58614). Taken together, such ameliorated grain quality traits will promote its wide-scale planting by the farmers and should thus help to improve the nutritional quality of the population of Madagascar.