Rice (Oryza satiVaL.) is the staple food for half of the world’s
population. The eating quality of rice is increasingly important
to meet the market demand. Therefore, one of the major goals
in a breeding program is to develop rice varieties of better eating
quality to satisfy the requirements of both the food industry
and consumers. Even though indica rice varieties are popular
worldwide, consumers in northeastern Asian countries such as
Korea, Japan, northern China, and Taiwan prefer japonica rice,
mainly due to its moderate elasticity and stick iness.