Assessment of genetic variability in rice (oryza sativa l.) germplasm from Pakistan using rapd markers

Information on genetic diversity and relationships among rice genotypes from Pakistan is currently very limited. Molecular marker analysis can truly be beneficial in analyzing the diversity of rice germplasm providing useful information to broaden the genetic base of modern rice cultivars. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic polymorphism of 75 rice accessions and improved cultivars using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique. Twenty-eight decamer-primers generated a total of 145 RAPD fragments, of which 116 (80%) were polymorphic. The number of amplification products produced by each primer varied from 3 to 9 with an average of 5.2 alleles primer-1. The size of amplified fragments ranged from 250 to 4000bp. A dendrogram was generated from minimal variance algorithm using Ward method. All the 75 genotypes were grouped into two main groups corresponding to aromatic and non-aromatic types of indica rice. Clustering of accessions did not show any significant pattern of association between the RAPD fingerprints and collection sites. This type of analysis grouping different rice accessions in relation to fragrance, a major rice quality determinant, and varietal group is extremely useful to develop a core collection and gene bank management. Further more, the information revealed by the RAPDs regarding genetic variation is helpful to the plant breeder in selecting diverse parents and for future orientation of rice breeding program. (author)