Asian Cultivated Rice (Oryza sativa)
Rice is a staple food for about more than 1/3 people in the world. It is also one of the most important crops for the Japanese agriculture. Although there are a lot of different rice varieties in our laboratory, we are mainly using Hokkaido variety which is adapted for cultivation in the northern area.
Asian Common Wild Rice (Oryza rufipogon)
This wild rice is growing in the natural condition in the tropics. They are thought to have similar traits with ancestors of Asian cultivated rice. They have useful traits/genes which cultivated rice doesn’t have. Therefore, they are thought as an important genetic resources for future rice improvement.
African Cultivated Rice (Oryza glaberrima)
Oryza glaberrima is domesticated independently from Asian cultivated rice in Africa. They show adaptability to “human neglected” cultivating condition. Also they are shown to have tolerance to high temperature and drought stress and resistance to some disease.