Jiezheng Ying

Editor’s summary Structured Abstract Abstract Supplementary Materials References and Notes Information & Authors Metrics & Citations Check Access References Figures Tables Media Share Editor’s summary Modern cropping systems with multiple crops grown per year demand shorter growing periods per crop. However, these condensed crop durations often lead to lower yield. Using rice accessions with contrasting flowering time and grain yield, Li et al.

Selecting crop varieties with high and stable yields, as well as improving quality and economic benefits, has become a long-term topic while facing the continuous increasing population and the adverse effects of environmental changes. Crop breeding is an important way to ensure human food security all over the world. Over recent decades, the process of crop breeding has greatly accelerated due to the application of modern molecular biology technologies and the basis of plant genetics.