MORPHO-MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF AMAN RICE GERMPLASM

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to analysis the genetic diversity of 24 Bangladeshi T. Aman rice (Oryza sativa L.) germplasm using morphological traits and molecular markers. The experiment was conducted at Genetic Resources and Seed Division (GRSD), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Gazipur, during the period of July to December 2019. Observed variables included qualitative and quantitative traits. A total of 10 qualitative and 10 quantitative characters were studied. Qualitative characters were descriptively analyzed and showed variation in different accessions. Quantitative data were also subjected to cluster analysis which showed total three cluster and many more sub-clusters. So the plant morphological traits exhibited more variation among the germplasm tested. A set of sixteen SSR markers was used for molecular diversity study which resulted 66 alleles with an average of allele number was 4.13. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.08 (RM455) to 0.80 (RM206) with an average of 0.48. The highest PIC value (0.80) was obtained from RM206. The PIC value revealed that RM206 was the best marker for 24 genotypes tested. The value of pair-wise comparisons of Nei’s genetic distance among 24 rice germplasm was computed from combined data for the 16 primers, ranged from 0.1250 to 0.9375 with an average of 0.5247. The cluster analysis based on UPGMA system grouped 24 germplasm into three main clusters and total six sub-cluster. Both the dendrogram showed diverse variation. Evaluation of morpho-molecular characters demonstrated that aman rice germplasm under the present study possessed a high genetic diversity which may be used for rice breeding program.