Abstract

Comparative diversity analysis of indigenous upland rice (Oryza sativa L.) of Assam using morphological traits and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers

Author(s): Akhil Ranjan Baruah, Ramendra Nath Sarma

The genetic relationship of 24 indigenous upland rice comprising 12 ahu (summer rice) and 12 jhum (hill rice) genotypes ofAssam, India was analyzed using 14 diagnostic morphological traits and 15 random amplified polymorphicDNA(RAPD)markers.Considerablemorphological variations for different traits were observed among the strains. The 15 random primers showed 92.20%polymorphismwith an average polymorphisminformation content (PIC) value of 0.429. The mean Euclidean distance for morphology and mean JaccardÂ’s coefficient of similarity for RAPD were 5.129±1.423 and 0.493±0.0978, respectively, indicating sufficient genetic diversity among the strains. No ecotype specific clustering was observed based on genetic similarity and distance coefficients using unweighted pair group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA). Ahu genotypes were more diverse than the jhum genotypes.Mantel test showed no correlation between morphological traits and RAPD, suggesting non-allelic relationship of the two marker systems.