FIGURE 6.

Schematic representation of DMS rice-based RS breeding. (A) Initial DMS rice population represented by six plants. Half of the plants are DMS plants and the other half are TMF plants. The DMS plants are distinguishable from TMF plants by plant height before heading stage. (B) Intermating population for RS. Unfavorable or unwanted plants in the initial DMS rice population are removed and germplasm (GER) plants of interest are introduced before heading. At flowering stage, the TMF and GER plants will randomly pollinate the DMS plants. Since DMS plants are completely male-sterile, emasculation is exempted. (C) Advanced DMS rice population generated from seeds of the DMS plants in the intermating population. Advanced DMS rice population can serve as the starting population of subsequent cycles of RS. (D) New variety population. After some cycles of RS, multiple genes/traits could be pyramided in some advanced TMF plants. Favorable TMF plants can be self-pollinated to generate non-transgenic pure lines/varieties. (E,F) A real initial DMS rice population at tillering stage (E) and flowering stage (F). Yellow and red arrows indicate the DMS and TMF plants, respectively.