Registration of ‘Titan’ Southern Medium‐Grain Rice

Abstract

‘Titan’ (Reg. No. CV‐151, PI 680613), is an early‐maturing and short‐statured medium‐grain rice cultivar (Oryza sativa L.) developed at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture's Rice Research and Extension Center (RREC), near Stuttgart, AR. It was approved for release in February 2016 by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Experiment Station. Titan was derived from the three‐way cross (‘M‐206’//‘Bengal’/‘Lafitte’) F1/‘Jupiter’ made at the RREC in 2006 and initiated as a F4:5 bulk of a single panicle row STG09PR‐81‐087 in the Puerto Rico winter nursery in spring 2010. In 45 statewide and multistate yield trials conducted from 2012 to 2015, Titan had a 4% yield advantage (statistically insignificant) over the predominant commercial cultivar Jupiter; however, it matured about 6 d earlier than the latter. Titan possesses both Pi‐z and Pi‐ks blast resistance genes compared with Jupiter, which only has the Pi‐ks gene, and Titan has a better resistance to both leaf and neck blast, which are caused by the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea (T.T. Hebert). Titan has a typical southern medium‐grain rice quality with an apparent amylose content of 15.0% and gelatinization temperature of 62.8°C, both very similar to that of Jupiter; however, Titan has a much larger kernel size than Jupiter. Titan is well adapted to the medium‐grain rice growing regions in the US Mid‐South. The release of the medium‐grain cultivar Titan will provide rice producers with an improved medium‐grain cultivar for rice production in Arkansas and the Mid‐South.