"Milky Queen, a new high-quality rice cultivar with low amylose content in endosperm."

"We developed ""Milky Queen"", a new rice cultivar with a low amylose content in the endosperm. Low-amylose plants were selected from the progeny after treatment of ""Koshihikari"" with a chemical mutagen, N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. A mutant line from the M7 generation was named ""Kanto 168"", and evaluated in collaboration with 45 prefectural experiment stations from 1992 to 1994. Kanto 168 was registered as Paddy Rice Norin 332 and named Milky Queen by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 1995. The main reason for releasing Milky Queen is that its grain is superior to that of Koshihikari in terms of cooking, eating, and processing quality. The amylose content of Milky Queen ranged from 9.1 to 12.2%, averaging 10.1%. The amylose content of Milky Queen was approximately 60% of that of Koshihikari, averaging 17.5%. Taste panelists at NARC rated Milky Queen as superior to Koshihikari, for plain steamed rice, cooked rice balls, and boiled rice with assorted ingredients. Major agronomic traits of Milky Queen were nearly equivalent to those of Koshihikari in paddy fields. Grains of Milky Queen were characterized by a dull endosperm intermediate between waxy and nonglutinous endosperm. Brown rice seeds of Milky Queen were slightly smaller than those of Koshihikari. The single brown rice weight of Milky Queen was 19.8 mg and that of Koshihikari, 20.5 mg. Milky Queen was not adapted to heavy chemical fertilizer use in paddy fields because it was susceptible, like Koshihikari, to lodging after heading and leaf- and panicle-blast disease. Milky Queen is adaptable to most of the Koshihikari growing areas in and south of the southern part of the Tohoku District in Japan."