Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and – Plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part – per se – Higher plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-30
2004-04-27
Fox, David T. (Department: 1638)
Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and
Plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part, per se
Higher plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part
C800S263000, C800S264000, C800S265000, C800S274000, C800S278000, C800S279000, C800S300000, C800S301000, C800S302000, C800S303000, C800S281000, C435S418000, C435S419000, C435S421000, C435S430000, C435S430100, C435S468000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06727414
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a new and distinctive rice cultivar, designated ‘Ahrent’. Rice is an ancient agricultural crop and is today one of the principal food crops of the world. There are two cultivated species of rice:
Oryza sativa
L., the Asian rice, and
O. glaberrima
Steud., the African rice.
O. sativa
L. constitutes virtually all of the world's cultivated rice and is the species grown in the United States. Three major rice producing regions exist in the United States: the Mississippi Delta (Arkansas, Mississippi, northeast Louisiana, southeast Missouri), the Gulf Coast (southwest Louisiana, southeast Texas), and the Central Valleys of California.
Rice is a semiaquatic crop that benefits from flooded soil conditions during part or all of the growing season. In the United States, rice is grown on flooded soils to optimize grain yields. Heavy clay soils or silt loam soils with hard pan layers about 30 cm below the surface are typical rice-producing soils because they minimize water losses from soil percolation. Rice production in the United States can be broadly categorized as either dry-seeded or water-seeded. In the dry-seeded system, rice is sown into a well-prepared seed bed with a grain drill or by broadcasting the seed and incorporating it with a disk or harrow. Moisture for seed germination is from irrigation or rainfall. Another method of planting by the dry-seeded system is to broadcast the seed by airplane into a flooded field, then promptly drain the water from the field. For the dry-seeded system, when the plants have reached sufficient size (four- to five-leaf stage), a shallow permanent flood of water 5 to 16 cm deep is applied to the field for the remainder of the crop season.
In the water-seeded system, rice seed is soaked for 12 to 36 hours to initiate germination, and the seed is broadcast by airplane into a flooded field. The seedlings emerge through a shallow flood, or the water may be drained from the field for a short period of time to enhance seedling establishment. A shallow flood is maintained until the rice approaches maturity. For both the dry-seeded and water-seeded production systems, the fields are drained when the crop is mature, and the rice is harvested 2 to 3 weeks later with large combines. In rice breeding programs, breeders try to employ the production systems predominant in their respective region. Thus, a drill-seeded breeding nursery is used by breeders in a region where rice is drill-seeded and a water-seeded nursery is used in regions where water-seeding is important.
Rice in the United States is classified into three primary market types by grain size, shape, and chemical composition of the endosperm: long-grain, medium grain and short-grain. Typical U.S. long-grain cultivars cook dry and fluffy when steamed or boiled, whereas medium- and short-grain cultivars cook moist and sticky. Long-grain cultivars have been traditionally grown in the southern states and generally receive higher market prices.
Although specific breeding objectives vary somewhat in the different regions, increasing yield is a primary objective in all programs. Grain yield of rice is determined by the number of panicles per unit area, the number of fertile florets per panicle, and grain weight per floret. Increases in any or all of these yield components may provide a mechanism to obtain higher yields. Heritable variation exists for all of these components, and breeders may directly or indirectly select for increases in any of them.
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to low temperatures, and better agronomic characteristics on grain quality.
Choice of breeding or selection methods depends on the mode of plant reproduction, the heritability of the trait(s) being improved, and the type of cultivar used commercially (e.g., F
1
hybrid cultivar, pureline cultivar, etc.). For highly heritable traits, a choice of superior individual plants evaluated at a single location will be effective, whereas for traits with low heritability, selection should be based on mean values obtained from replicated evaluations of families of related plants. Popular selection methods commonly include pedigree selection, modified pedigree selection, mass selection, and recurrent selection, or a combination of these methods.
The complexity of inheritance influences choice of the breeding method. Backcross breeding is used to transfer one or a few favorable genes for a highly heritable trait into a desirable cultivar. This approach has been used extensively for breeding disease-resistant cultivars. Various recurrent selection techniques are used to improve quantitatively inherited traits controlled by numerous genes. The use of recurrent selection in self-pollinating crops depends on the ease of pollination, the frequency of successful hybrids from each pollination, and the number of hybrid offspring from each successful cross.
Each breeding program should include a periodic, objective evaluation of the efficiency of the breeding procedure. Evaluation criteria vary depending on the goal and objectives, but should include gain from selection per year based on comparisons to an appropriate standard, overall value of the advanced breeding lines, and number of successful cultivars produced per unit of input (e.g., per year, per dollar expended, etc.).
Promising advanced breeding lines are thoroughly tested and compared to appropriate standards in environments representative of the commercial target area(s) for three or more years. The best lines are candidates for new commercial cultivars; those still deficient in a few traits may be used as parents to produce new populations for further selection.
These processes, which lead to the final step of marketing and distribution, usually take from eight to 12 years from the time the first cross is made and may rely on the development of improved breeding lines as precursors. Therefore, development of new cultivars is a time-consuming process that requires precise forward planning, efficient use of resources, and a minimum of changes in direction.
A most difficult task is the identification of individuals that are genetically superior, because for most traits the true genotypic value is masked by other confounding plant traits or environmental factors. One method of identifying a superior plant is to observe its performance relative to other experimental plants and to a widely grown standard cultivar. If a single observation is inconclusive, replicated observations provide a better estimate of its genetic worth.
The goal of plant breeding is to develop new, unique and superior rice cultivars and hybrids. The breeder initially selects and crosses two or more parental lines, followed by self-pollination and selection, producing many new genetic combinations. The breeder can theoretically generate billions of different genetic combinations via crossing, selfing and mutations. The breeder has no direct control at the cellular level. Therefore, two breeders will never develop the same line, or even very similar lines, having the same rice traits.
Each year, the plant breeder selects the germplasm to advance to the next generation. This germplasm is grown under unique and different geographical, climatic and soil conditions, and further selections are then made, during and at the end of the growing season. The cultivars which are developed are unpredictable. This unpredictability is because the breeder's selection occurs in unique environment
Lee Fleet N.
Moldenhauer Karen A. K.
Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas NA
Jondle & Associates P.C.
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