Germplasm Preservation and Genetic Improvement of Tropical Rice (GPGITR) is mainly dedicated to the collection, protection, evaluation and utilization of tropical rice germplasms, including wild rice and cultivated rice. We aim to explore the excellent traits of tropical rice adapted to extreme environments and elucidate the genetic and molecular mechanisms of key genes or molecular modules from tropical rice, thus genetically improving lowland rice and upland rice breeding.

Our main research interests are as follows:

(1) Dissection of the important genes and cultivation of new germplasm of tropical rice germplasms, including wild rice, cultivated rice, and landrace;

(2) Underlying molecular mechanism of upland rice adaptation to terrestrial environment;

(3) Molecular analysis of regulatory network for specific new plant architecture in upland rice and wild rice;

(4) Molecular breeding for rice crops;

(5) Crop nutrition and quality.

Group Leader: Prof. XU Peng