DUS TRAIT EVALUATION AND MICRO-SATELLITE MARKERS BASED MOLECULAR PROFILING OF PROMINENT RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.) VARIETIES GROWN IN BIHAR

Abstract

This research was carried out at the Rice Breeding Section, Pusa Farm, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University (RPCAU) in Samastipur, Bihar. Twenty-two rice cultivars cultivated in Bihar and enhanced varieties were sown using a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications and a standard spacing of 20 × 15 cm to analyse agro-morphologically and molecularly using SSR markers. The evaluation was conducted by the DUS descriptors provided by the Directorate of Rice Research in Hyderabad. The analysis of DUS characteristics revealed that the decorticated grain colour was observed as white in all twenty-two rice varieties. The aroma of decorticated grain was found to be absent in all twenty-two varieties except Rajendra Bhagwati. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values, which indicate allelic diversity and frequency based on simple sequence length polymorphism, ranged from 0.710 to 0.917, with an average value of 0.820 per locus. Among the primer pairs, higher PIC values were observed in RM 566, RM 520, RM 555, RM 324, RM 521, and RM 431, which are referred to be highly informative markers. Clustering analysis, based on a similarity threshold of 75 units, resulted in the subdivision of the entries into multiple sub-clusters: IA, IIA, IIIA, B, IC, IIC, ID, IID, IIID, IE, IIE, IF, and IIF.