0%, 7.4%, 4.3% and 6.1% of the total trait variation, respectively. Table 5 shows the mean trait performances of 16 promising HHZ ILs that had significantly higher GY and/or better DT than HHZ in at least one location. These included 10 DT selected ILs, 3 ST selected

ILs for and 3 HY selected ILs, respectively. Of these, WT185 was the best and was originally selected for DT but Vincristine in vitro showed significantly higher GY than HHZ under drought and non-stress conditions in both Hainan and Beijing. HHZ is a high yielding and widely adapted variety currently grown on 3,500,000 ha in southern and central China. It also performs well in many countries in tropical Asia and Africa (data not shown). However, it does not have good tolerance to many abiotic stresses. This study reports part of our efforts to convert it into a green super rice (GSR) variety with tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses using a selleck BC breeding strategy. Consistent with previous results [14], [15] and [16], the development of many HHZ ILs with significantly improved DT, ST or HY demonstrated that BC breeding and phenotypic selection were effective for improving single

complex traits in rice. Furthermore, direct comparison between the ILs and HHZ for yield performance and related traits under drought stress and non-stress conditions across different environments led us to several important conclusions regarding how to improve selection efficiency and overall genetic gain when aiming to improving multiple complex traits in a BC breeding program. Firstly, our results indicated that

the primary target traits should be selected first in the target environments. This was reflected by the huge differences between ILs generated from the three selection schemes (Table 1) and by the fact that the most promising HHZ ILs showing significantly improved DT and GPX6 yield in Hainan were originally DT selected (Table 5). This was not surprising since the initial selection for DT was carried out in Hainan, whereas the yield performances of the ST and HY selected HHZ ILs under drought and non-stress conditions in Hainan were indirect responses. Interestingly, we observed positive gains of 12.2% and 12.5% in GY under normal conditions in Hainan as indirect responses to selection for ST and HY in Beijing, and found no evidence for a yield penalty associated with DT in the tested HHZ ILs (Table 3). Secondly, our results indicated that selection for DT in the DS in Hainan practiced in many Chinese rice breeding programs should be largely effective. In this study, the overall level of G × E interaction accounted for only (14.2%) of GY in the 43 DT selected ILs, 3.4%, 6.1% and 4.7% of which was attributed to the G × T, G × L and G × T × L interactions.