1.Introduction: Tropical Food Crop Research Center(TFCRC) was established in December 2011, The main research tasks include: collection and conservation, identification and utilization of rice genetic resources with tropical characteristics, breeding of new varieties of tropical upland rice and salt tolerant rice, and also the research on related production technologies. TFCRC has set up a comprehensive experiment base with an area of about 4 hectares, and greenhouses, field laboratories and a tropical rice germplasm bank with low temperature and low humidity in Danzhou of Hainan Province. By the end of 2022, there are 6 researchers working at TFCRC, including 3 senior researchers, 4 with doctorates, and 1 with master's degree and 1 with bachelor's degree.
TFCRC has undertaken more than 20 research projects, including Major and key programs for development of science and technology sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology,the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Hainan Province, etc., and international cooperation projects, as well as the national green channel and consortium tests for rice variety certification. Seven new rice varieties were registered by Hainan and Hunan Variety Appraisal Committee, and three varieties have been planted in large scale for production. and six new rice varieties have been authorized with Plant Variety Protection. Three books and 25 papers have been published.
2.Research groups: The Director of Tropical Food Crop Research Center is Dr Zhizhou He. At present, TFCRC has three research groups, including tropical rice germplasm resources group, tropical rice breeding group and tropical rice cultivation group.
3.Research directions and program：Tropical Food Crop Research Center adheres to the major needs of the country, carries out research around food security in tropical regions and the development of rice production industry, The main research directions include: collection and conservation, identification and utilization of rice genetic resources with tropical characteristics, breeding of new varieties of tropical upland rice and salt tolerant rice, and also the research on related production technologies. At present, TFCRC has undertaken more than 10 projects, including major science and technology projects in Hainan Province, high-level talent projects of Hainan Natural Science Foundation, Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, etc., as well as research and development projects entrusted by enterprises.
4.Research progress
4.1:More than 2100 rice genetic resources from 13 tropical countries have been collected and preserved. Phenotypic identification and genetic diversity analysis of important agronomic traits, salt tolerance and drought resistance of tropical excellent germplasm resources were evaluated, and core germplasm of tropical rice genetic resources were constructed.
4.2: Seven new varieties of hybrid rice, conventional rice and CMS rice were registered by Hainan and Hunan Variety Appraisal Committee, Hongtaiyou 996 and Zhonglianyou 589 have been planted in large scale for production. Two new rice varieties were tested in national trials, and four new varieties of paddy rice were tested in provincial trials. Six new rice varieties have been authorized with Plant Variety Protection, and 28 Reke rice varieties were declared for Plant Variety Protection.
4.3: Using tropical rice resources, mutants of many characters, such as leaf color, heading date, plant height, grain type, leaf angle, tiller angle, plant type and yield, were obtained by EMS and radiation mutagenesis. Target genes were located by MutMap technology and the functions of related genes were studied. Molecular markers such as badh2, SKC1 and Hd1/Ghd7/Ghd7.1/Ghd8 were designed, which are suitable for marker assisted breeding with InDel and KASP markers.
