Diversity analysis of rice landraces of Bihar using linked and functional markers.

In the present study, 45 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers distributed throughout the 12 chromosomes of rice and a gene-specific co-dominant marker for the fragrance (fgr) gene of rice were used to characterize 13 landraces collected from the adjoining areas of Bhagalpur in Bihar and 3 released rice genotypes. The number of alleles generated by each marker ranged from 2 to 4 with an average of 2.41 alleles per locus. Marker RM 489 generated maximum number of alleles (4). Polymorphic information content (PIC) varied greatly for all SSR loci ranging from 0.08 to 0.49 with average of 0.25. The highest PIC value (0.49) was obtained for RM 431, which suggests the utility of this marker for analyzing genetic diversity in rice. The constructed dendrogram showed two distinct clusters, where the major cluster (cluster I) contained 14 out of the 16 rice genotypes under study. Dice similarity coefficient was maximum between Malida and Burma Bhusi and minimum between Kalanamak and Gutraj. By using gene-specific marker for grn gene, 11 genotypes showed amplification of fragrance allele-specific band. Thus, the present study suggests that there is scope for exploitation of genetic diversity of landraces available in Bihar for future rice breeding programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]