Assessment of genetic diversity in short grained aromatic rice using conventional and molecular approaches Kar M.K.*, Rao M.V.R., Sahoo T.N., Rao G.J.N., Roy A.T. Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Orissa, India *Email: "Meera Kar " meera_kar@hotmail.com
Online published on 22 February, 2013. Abstract Agro-physico chemical traits and RAPD markers were used to survey genetic diversity in 47 rice genotypes which included 38 nonbasmati local aromatic rice varieties, five basmati varieties and four non-aromatic high yielding slender grain varieties. Seven agronomical characters and twelve physico-chemical characters were studied and field as well as laboratory data were subjected to multivariate analysis as proposed by Mahalanobis’s D2-statistics and Tochers method of clustering. Molecular characterization of the genoypes was done using thirty decamer primers from Bangalore Genei Pvt. Ltd. The 47 genotypes were classified into six clusters based on D2 analysis. All the local scented varieties were grouped in to the cluster I excepting Dubraj and Mahulkuchi. In the cluster II, three aromatic long grained basmati type varieties and three nonaromatic long grained varieties were present, while in cluster III, two medium grained varieties, one being aromatic (Dubraj) and another non-aromatic (Sambamahsuri) were clubbed together. Two basmati type aromatic varieties Pusa Basmati 1 and Kernal Local related by ancestry formed two distinct monogenotypic clusters. Thus D2 analysis could not give a clear cut classification of aromatic and nonaromatic rice varieties. Besides that it could not throw some light on ancestry also. On the other hand, from the dendrogram constructed based on RAPD data, at 75% similarity coefficient level, all the aromatic varieties were clubbed in to a single cluster excepting two local varieties Dubraj and Sujata. The non-aromatic varieties also formed a distinct cluster. At a higher similarity level, the local aromatic rice and basmati types formed two distinct sub-clusters. Thus, from the present study it can be inferred that RAPD analysis can be used as a reliable method for classification of rice varieties into local aromatic, basmati type and non-aromatic types. Top Keywords Aromatic rice, Mahalanobis’s D2-statistics, RAPD. Top |