Giza 179 Egyptian rice variety: as a new, early, high-yielding, tolerant to saline, and climate change challenge

Abstract

Saline and drought conditions are the biggest threats to plant species around the world. The rice crop is one of the most important crops worldwide. Therefore, the Giza 179 rice variety was released in the 2013 season as an early-maturing, high-yielding variety that is adapted and mitigated to drought and saline soils. This new variety was produced by crossbreeding between GZ6296-12-1-2-1-1 and GZ 1368-5-S-4 in the 2001 season. The first generation, "F1,” of this cross was evaluated in the 200 2 season and planted as the F2 generation in the 2003 season. Sequentially, the next generations from F3 to F6 were evaluated in the pedigree trails during the 2004 – 2007 seasons under code number GZ 9057. Two promising sister lines, GZ 9057-6-1-3-1 and GZ 9057-6-1-3-2, were selected and evaluated in a preliminary yield trail at the Experimental Farm of Rice Research and Training Center, Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt. The results revealed that the promising line GZ 9057-6-1-3-2 (Giza 179) surpassed all selected lines. Accordingly, the line GZ 9057-6-1-3-2 was evaluated from 2009 to 2011 and used as a check variety up to the 2022 seasons in multi-location yield trails at Sakha, Gemmiza, and Zarzoura as normal conditions and El-Sirw as saline conditions in regional, final, and verification yield trails. The GZ 9057-6-1-3-2 (Giza 179) recorded 10.47 t/ha for grain yield with a total duration of 122-125 days under normal conditions and 7.000 – 7.200 t/ha under saline conditions at El-Sirw Agricultural Research Station, while Giza 178 recorded 9.75 t/ha during the same seasons under normal conditions with a total duration of 135 days. Furthermore, the Giza 179 variety showed a high level of blast resistance in blast nursery and trap varieties in the field and artificial inoculation under greenhouse conditions. The results from PCR analysis for the Giza 179 with their parents showed that the proximity matrix was 89.8% between Giza 179 and GZ6296 and 71.1% between Giza 179 and GZ1368. Finally, it is an excellent new cultivar to be released and recommended for cultivation in the different rice-growing governorates, particularly in areas suffering from water shortages and saline soils in Egypt.