1. Plant biotechnology, one of the sections of biotechnology, Seed Bank and plant protection Division at Agricultural Research Department (ARD) in Myanmar. Major objective of Plant Biotechnology in Myanmar is to conduct applied and its related basic research in the area of all and tissue culture techniques in combination with mutation technique applicableto Agriculture, to promote research and development of DNA technologies in crop breeding. In Myanmar, there are four major research that deal with plant Biotechnology R&D at Ministry of Agriculture and Irrition (MOAI). The activities in Plant Biotechnology are being conducted in ARD, Yezin, Pyinmana, Vegetable and Fruit Research and Development Center (VFRDC); Mintaleton Orchid Farm and Plant Biotechnology Laboratory (Nyaung hna bin, Hmawbi)

2. Research objectives 1. To conduct applied research in the area of cell and tissue culture techniques. 2. To conduct limited basic researc in the area of in vitro nuclear techniques. 3. To integrate tissue culture and in vi tro nuclear techniques into varietal improvement with special emphasis on rice.

3. Current research activities - Production of homozygous lines in rice and inbred line in sunflower through doubled haploid breeding. - Induction of mutant lines through In viitro nuclear techniques in rice, sugar crane, and groundnut. - In vitro multiplication of banana, ginger, potato, pineapple strawberry and aloes. - Somatic embryogenesis of mango, oil palm and banana. - Biotechnology analysis of rice germplasm.

4. Achievements - Development of short-duration upland rice mutant cultivar (Yar-2 Mutant). - Development of salt tolerance mutant lines of rice. - Development of moderately resistance of red-rot disease mutant line in sugarcane CV Yezin-1 which is high yield, but not suscripible to red-rot disease. - In vitro multiplication protocol on banana, ginger pineapple, strawberry, potato and aloe. - Multiplication of mango and oil palm and through somatic embryogenesis. - Protein analysis in 100 rice accessions has alone through SDS-PAGE.

5. Future research program at plant tissue culture area. - In vitro unpollinated ovary culture in rice. - Embryo rescue in cotton. - In vitro conservation of vegetative propagated crops. - Isozymes analysis in rice germplasm. Future research program on DNA technology. - Molecular analysis of phylogenetic relationship. - PCR based marker assisted selection in rice espectially in biotic and abiotic stress.

6. Back ground Rice is the major crop in Myanmar. As Myanmar has a wide range of climatic and geographic conditions, salinity areas occupied with 4% of the total rice growing areas. Salinity problem in coastal area is reduced in yield. Thus varieties with salt tolerant and high yield cultivar must be needed in that area. Research Proposal By Daw Khine Oo Aung Improvement of salt tolerant varieties in rice using Marker-assisted Selection

7. Statement of problem Rice is the staple food in our country. All of Myanmar eats rice three timesa day. So rice production must be needed to upgrade in our country. In most of the salinity delta area, currently grown traditional varieties, salt tolerant ability, long growth duration give low yields. If high yielding varieties can be improved with salt tolerance, it is expected that rice production will be increased for the salinity area.

8. Objective - To obtain high yielding varieties with salt tolerance Plant materials - Donor - Pokkali - Recipient- IR 53936

9. Breeding scheme (Salt tolerant rice) IR 53936 x Pokkali (Male) (Female) already F 1 harvested F 1 x IR 53936 ( female) August BC 1 F 1 x IR 53936 Third week (female) 2004 Feb last week BC 2 F 1 2005

10. Proposal II by Daw Myint Yi IR65204 x Pokalli F 1 x IR65204 BC 1 F 1 x IR65204 BC 2 F 1 x selfing BC 1 F 2

11. Induction of short duration cultivar of Upland rice through Radiation and Anther Culture Kyin San Myint, Khine Oo Aung and Khin Soe Yield and yield component s of Yar-2 and Yar-2 mutant. Sr.Varieties planttilleringpanicle no. of filled filled 1000 grain 50%yield height with length grain with grain weight floweringbasket/ (cm) panicle (cm) one panicle % (gm) date acre 1Yar-2106.410.423.085.470.323.49655 2.Yar-282.012.821.7100.371.121.97757 mutant (line no. 18)

12. Comparison of Quality of Yar-2 and Yar-2 mutant Sr.SampleElongation Gel. Protien Amylose Gel no. Ratio Temp. (%) (%) Consistency 1Yar-2 1.76High/Inter 5.63 24.05 Hard 2. Yar-2 mutant1.52 Inter 6.53 28.98Medium