Contents -- Foreword -- Rice drought-prone environments and coping strategies -- Drought: economic costs and research implications Sushil Pandey and Humnath Bhandari -- Drought: definition, coping strategies, and consequences2 -- Frequency of drought and economic loss3 -- Household-level consequences of drought -- Implications -- Agricultural research -- Technology design considerations -- Complementary options -- Concluding remarks -- References -- Modeling spatial and temporal variation of drought in rice production Robert J. Hijmans and Rachid Serraj -- Defining drought -- Systems analysis and simulation -- Distribution of rice production systems and rainfall -- Water as a yield-limiting factor -- The potential benefits of drought tolerance -- Discussion -- References -- Recent progress in breeding and genetics of drought resistance -- Rice germplasm development for drought-prone environments: progress made in breeding and genetic analysis at the International Rice Research Institute G.N. Atlin, R. Venuprasad, J. Bernier, D. Zhao, P. Virk, and A. Kumar -- Target environments for drought germplasm improvement -- Physiological and agronomic effects of drought, and implications for germplasm improvement -- Screening cultivars for tolerance of acute stress at flowering versus intermittent stress -- Cultivar development for drought-prone environments -- Developing cultivars with improved lowland drought tolerance for bunded upper terraces -- Developing cultivars with improved drought tolerance for unbunded uplands -- Designing cultivar development programs that can combine drought tolerance with yield potential -- Prospects for marker-aided selection for drought tolerance in rice -- Conclusions -- References.

Drought research at WARDA: current situation and prospects M. Sié, K. Futakuchi, H. Gridley, S. Mande, B. Manneh, M.N. Ndjiondjop, A. Efisue, S.A. Ogunbayo, M. Moussa, H. Tsunematsu, and H. Samejima -- Identification of genetic sources for drought resistance -- WARDA-JIRCAS Drought Project -- Generation of breeding and mapping populations -- Evaluation of breeding lines developed -- Conclusions and prospects -- References -- Drought resistance characters and variety development for rainfed lowland rice in Southeast Asia Shu Fukai, Jaya Basnayake, and Ouk Makara -- Drought resistance characters -- Characterizing the water environment -- Improving yield in drought-prone environments -- Current status in research and development -- References -- Molecular breeding for drought-tolerant rice (Oryza sativa L.): progress and perspectives Zhi-Kang Li and Yong-Ming Gao -- Mechanisms of drought tolerance in rice -- Genetic basis of DT in rice -- Breeding for improved DT in rice -- Improving rice DT by backcross breeding and designed QTL pyramiding -- References -- Recent efforts to improve drought resistance of rice in Brazil Flavio Breseghello, Cleber Moraes Guimarães, and Beatriz da Silveira Pinheiro -- Early studies on drought resistance at Embrapa -- Rice breeding objectives for the Cerrado -- Drought research projects at Embrapa -- Conclusions -- References -- Harnessing quantitative genetics and genomics for understanding and improving complex traits in crops James B. Holland and Andrea J. Cardinal -- Marker-assisted selection today -- Marker-assisted selection for polygenic traits -- From basic biology to developing markers useful for practical breeding -- A top-down approach to understanding the genomics of complex traits -- Conclusions -- References -- Physiological and molecular mechanisms of drought resistance.

Drought-resistant rice: physiological framework for an integrated research strategy R. Serraj, G. Dimayuga, V. Gowda, Y. Guan, Hong He, S. Impa, D.C. Liu, R.C. Mabesa, R. Sellamuthu, and R. Torres -- Drought or droughts? -- Plant water use and responses to water deficits -- Concepts and tools for precise high-throughput phenotyping -- FTSW dry-down approach -- Germplasm screening -- Dehydration-avoidance traits -- Conclusions: an integrated strategy for improving drought resistance -- References -- The rice root system: from QTLs to genes to alleles Brigitte Courtois, Nourollah Ahmadi, Christophe Perin, Delphine Luquet, and Emmanuel Guiderdoni -- Genetic diversity of root systems in rice -- Screening techniques -- QTLs controlling root morphology -- QTL validation through NIL development -- Linking QTLs to genes -- From genes to alleles through association studies -- Strategies to accumulate favorable alleles -- Concluding remarks -- References -- An integrated systems approach to crop improvement Graeme L. Hammer and David Jordan -- Design of an integrated crop improvement program -- Role of ecophysiology and modeling in integrated crop improvement -- Value of ecophysiology and modeling in integrated crop improvement -- Concluding remarks -- References -- Management of rainfed rice systems -- Drought-prone rainfed lowland rice in Asia: limitations and management options S.M. Haefele and B.A.M. Bouman -- Important characteristics of the environment -- Management options for water-limited rainfed lowlands -- Drought escape -- Drought moderation through nutrient management -- Drought moderation through direct seeding -- Aerobic rice -- Conclusions -- References -- Enhancing rice productivity in water-stressed environments: perspectives for genetic improvement and management Anil Kumar Singh and Viswanathan Chinnusamy -- Target environments.

Drought resistance -- Maximization of water uptake -- Minimization of water loss -- Water-use efficiency -- Grain yield and yield components -- Other production constraints -- Weed management -- Pest management -- Conclusions and perspectives -- References -- Effects of irrigation treatment on rice growth and development: comparing a study of rice farming between nonflooding and flooding cultivation Longxing Tao, Xi Wang, Huijuan Tan, and Shihua Cheng -- Materials and methods -- Plant materials -- Experimental methods -- Results and analysis -- Effects of soil water content on root respiration -- Effects of soil water content on root exudate volume and zeatin content -- Transportation and allocation of labeled carbohydrates stored in leaf sheath -- Transportation and allocation of labeled carbon assimilates from flag leaf -- Discussion -- References -- Genes and genomics for drought-resistant rice -- GM technology for drought resistance . Philippe Hervé and Rachid Serraj -- Some lessons from recently published work -- Key issues and possible roadmap for drought GM breeding -- GM approach and reverse drought physiology -- Concluding remarks -- References -- Biotechnology and transposon-tagging for improving drought resistance in rice for Indonesia I.H. Slamet-Loedin, S. Purwantomo, P.B.F. Ouwerkerk, S. Nugroh and R. Serraj -- Perspectives for using transcription factor genes for drought-resistance breeding -- Characterization of drought-responsive HD-Zip genes in rice -- Perspectives for the discovery of new drought-resistance genes in rice via transposon-tagging -- References -- Bioinformatics for drought resistance Victor Jun Ulat, Samart Wanchana, Ramil Mauleon, and Richard Bruskiewich -- The genomics paradigm -- What is the role of bioinformatics? -- Crop (plant) genome sequencing -- General observations about sequenced plant genomes.

Framework for gene discovery -- Perspectives in modern biology -- The molecular biology perspective -- The systems biology perspective -- Bioinformatics for drought resistance at IRRI -- Drought-stressed panicle library -- Drought data integration -- Other bioinformatics data sets -- Other pertinent tools and initiatives -- International Rice Functional Genomics Consortium -- Generation Challenge Program -- IRRI-CIMMYT Alliance in research informatics -- Some brainstorming -- Summary -- References -- Gene expression analysis and data mining from microarray analysis applied to drought stress in rice Kouji Satoh, Koji Doi, Toshifumi Nagata, Aeni Hosaka, Kohji Suzuki, Xumei Ji, Muturajan Raveendran, Hei Leung, John Bennett, and Shoshi Kikuchi -- Materials and methods -- Plant materials and RNA preparation -- Data analysis -- Results and discussion -- Commonly and specifically up- and down-regulated genes among eight microarray experiments -- Genes commonly and specifically up- and down-regulated among four drought-stress experiments -- Combined analysis of genes encoding transcription factor proteins and cis-elements found in the promoter regions of possible downstream genes -- Metabolic pathway analysis -- Drought-responsive genes and their chromosomal positions and relationships to known drought-related QTLs -- Conclusions -- References -- WEB site information -- Gene discovery for improving drought resistance of irrigated rice by systematic genetic and functional genomics approaches Lizhong Xiong -- General description of approaches for improving drought resistance in rice -- Major progress made in the discovery of genes for drought resistance QTL -- Identification of stress-associated key genes by mutant screening -- Identification of drought-responsive genes by comparative expression profiling analysis -- Problems and perspectives -- References.

SNP discovery at candidate genes for drought responsiveness in rice Kenneth L. McNally, Ma. Elizabeth Naredo, and Jill Cairns.