Abstract:
Rice is the most important
food crop for the developing world. Hence,
identifying rice genotypes to drought
tolerance for using as donors in breeding is
one of the most important challenges for
rice research. Therefore, Molecular markers
are useful tools to determine genetic
diversity and identifying rice genotypes to
drought tolerance. In the present study, A
number of 41 rice genotypes with different
drought tolerance from different geographic
locations were evaluated for genetic
diversity by using 15 SSR markers. A total
of 68 alleles were detected of which
61(89.79%) were polymorphic. The number
of alleles detected by a single marker varied
from 2 to 8 alleles with an average of 4.71
alleles per locus. The polymorphic
information content (PIC) values ranged
from 0.07 (RM219) to 0.80 (RM263) with
an average of 0.52. Genetic similarity
coefficients of pair wise comparisons were
estimated on the basis of the polymorphic
microsatelite loci ranged from 0.23 to 0.91
indicating a wide range of genetic variation
present among the studied genotypes. It was
determined that the primers RM20A,
RM302, RM212 and RM286 could be
useful for selecting drought tolerant lines
through MAS approach. The most
significant application of these identified
major QTLs for drought tolerance is to
collect those favorable alleles into elite local
line through marker assisted breeding. The
results indicated the ability of SSR markers
to identify the allelic diversity and genetic
variation among the studied rice genotypes.
These results recommended for using this
material in future breeding programs to
provide important source of genetic
diversity for drought tolerance in rice.
