Inheritance of Grain-protein Content in Rice

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The F2 and F3 plants derived from reciprocal crosses of four combinations between six rice variaties were analysed for grain-protein content. The distributions of protein content in the F2 populations were continuous and appeared to be normal. The range were within the parental values. The F1 and F2 means were higher or lower than the mid-parental values. Heritabilty in the broad-sence estimated from the F2 genetic variance ranged from 39.3 to 78.3 percent. The F2/F3 correlation coefficiants obtained from reciprocal crosses between Norin 1 and Norin 22 were 0. 515 and 0. 633, which were highly significant. The suggested that the grain-protein content in rice was controlled by polygenes, some of which would have dominant effects. In view of the relatively high heritability values, selection of plants for high protein content may be effective in an early hybrid generation. No significant difference found between reciprocal crosses suggests that cytoplasmic effect is not important in the inheritance of grain-protein content in rice. The relationships between grain-protein and other agronomic traits were investigated with the F2 plants from reciprocal cross between Norin 1 and Norin 22. Protein content was negatively correlated with culm length, number of panicles, heading time and 1000 grain weight.