Relationship of Parental Indica-Japonica Indexes with Yield and Grain Quality Traits of Japonica Hybrid Rice in Northern China

Taking the main parents (10 male sterile lines and 10 restorer lines) and their 100 combinations of japonica hybrid rice in northern China as materials, the relationships of parental indica-japonica indexes determined by the methods of the Cheng's index as well as simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers with yield and grain quality traits of hybrid rice were studied. For the parents, the Cheng's index (Chi) ranged from 13.5 to 19.3 and the indica index in SSR markers (ADi) were from 0.12 to 0.38. The classification of parents by Chi was not completely consistent with that by ADi. The Chi of male parent was more closely related to hybrid traits than that of female parent, as contrasted to ADi. At the same time, the difference between parents (PD) in Chi was more closely related to hybrid traits than that in ADi. The indica-japonica indexes of parents and their difference between parents appeared quadratic relationship to hybrid traits with the critical extremum. The directions of the correlation of indica-japonica indexes of parents and their differences with hybrid yield traits were on the opposition to those with hybrid grain quality traits. Therefore, the female parent should match the male parent moderately in indica-japonica index to obtain the optimum of hybrid traits, high yield as well as good quality.