Current Status of Breeding of Rice Cultivars with Resistance to Pecky Rice Incidence Caused by the Stink Bugs

Abstract

The rice stink bug, which injures spikelets, has become a major pest in Japan and many other rice producing countries, as it reduces the quality and yield of brown rice by causing pecky rice and producing sterile grains. The area of stink bug infestation in Japan has increased as a percentage of the paddy rice planted area since the mid-1990s. By the early 2000s it was on a par with that of the major rice pests (green rice leafhoppers and small brown planthoppers) and has since become a serious problem. Methods to reduce stink bug damage such as management techniques for gramineous weeds that provide the habitat for stink bugs, chemical control techniques, and use of machines that specifically remove pecky rice, are costly and labor intensive. Therefore, it is desirable to breed rice cultivars that are resistant to rice stink bugs. Globally, research on breeding such resistant cultivars has achieved little progress. However, studies are being conducted to obtain resistant mother plants for breeding rice stink bug-resistant cultivars, to develop resistance assays for breeding, and to analyze the resistance mechanism. This review comprehensively discusses the current status of breeding for rice stink bug resistance and describes its future prospects.