Assessment of genetic diversity and DNA fingerprinting of aromatic rice varieties released by National Rice Research Institute ( NRRI )

Eastern India is one of the major producers and consumers of aromatic rice. Despite low yields, these aromatic rices are highly preferred by farmers and consumers due to their pleasant aroma and excellent cooking and eating quality. Over years, several new aromatic varieties have been released by different research organizations and private sector. The National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack has also been working on aromatic rice improvement and developed several breeding lines using different breeding approaches and released seven elite aromatic rice varieties. Understanding the variability and interrelationships among the released varieties will be of great help to us in planning the future aromatic rice improvement programs. The present study is an assessment of the diversity present in these aromatic rice varieties using microsatellite markers. The markers recorded high level of polymorphism with an average genetic diversity value (He) of 0.564. Also, these markers showed high discriminating power with an average polymorphism information content (PIC) of 0.734. Further, Ketekijoha and CR SugandhDhan 907 had lowest pair-wise genetic distance (0.425), whereas, Geetanjali and Nua Kalajeera were having highest genetic distance of 1.600. The Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) dendrogram could group the purelines, mutants and varieties into separate groups. Besides, DNA fingerprints of these seven varieties were generated will be of great help in protecting the IPR of the varieties.