1 3 Theor Appl Genet DOI 10.1007/s00122-015-2537-6 REVIEW Prospects of breeding high-quality rice using post-genomic tools Roslen Anacleto 1 · Rosa Paula Cuevas 1 · Rosario Jimenez 1 · Cindy Llorente 1 · Eero Nissila 1 · Robert Henry 2 · Nese Sreenivasulu 1 Received: 24 October 2014 / Accepted: 8 May 2015 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 understanding of grain quality and attributes derived from sensory evaluation to leverage integrative gene discov- ery strategies that enable breeding programs to efficiently tap the huge genetic diversity in rice for novel genes that enhance rice food quality. Introduction Rice (Oryza sativa L.) belongs to the family Poaceae and tribe Oryzeae. It has two cultivated species and 22 wild species and possesses huge diversity for grain quality traits. Market survey data suggest that efforts to develop varieties with improved cooking and eating quality have high eco- nomic returns (Son et al. 2014). Even though grain qual- ity strongly drives the market value of rice (Dalton 2004), varietal improvement programs have largely focused on enhancing yield with a lag in focusing on grain quality. Grain yield and key grain quality traits are complemen- tary beneficial traits. However, breeding varieties with both higher yield potential and superior grain quality traits have not had much historical success (Peng et al. 2008). Low- to moderate-yielding varieties that have the best organoleptic Abstract Key message The holistic understanding derived from integrating grain quality and sensory research out- comes in breeding high-quality rice in the light of post- genomics resources has been synthesized. Abstract Acceptance of new rice genotypes by producers and consumers hinges not only on their potential for higher yield but recent emphasis has also been on premium-value genotypes that have the ability to satisfy consumer prefer- ences for grain quality. This review article provides insights into how to link grain quality attributes and sensory per- ception to support breeding superior rice varieties. Recent advances in quality profiling and omics technologies have provided efficient approaches to identify the key genes and biochemical markers involved in rice quality traits. Emphasis has been given to the upcoming area of holistic Communicated by R. K. Varshney. Roslen Anacleto and Rosa Paula Cuevas have contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00122-015-2537-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Nese Sreenivasulu n.sreenivasulu@irri.org Roslen Anacleto r.anacleto@irri.org Rosa Paula Cuevas R.Cuevas@irri.org Rosario Jimenez r.jimenez@irri.org Cindy Llorente c.llorente@irri.org Eero Nissila e.nissila@irri.org Robert Henry robert.henry@uq.edu.au 1 International Rice Research Institute, DAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila 1301, Philippines 2 Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia