Agro-morphological characterization and assessment of variability, heritability, genetic advance and divergence in bacterial blight resistant rice genotypes

AbstractGenetic based knowledge of different growth traits including morphological, physiological and developmental plays fundamental role in the improvement of rice. Genetic divergence allows superior recombinants which are essential in any crop development project. Forty-one rice genotypes including bacterial blight (BB) resistant and susceptible checks were assessed for 13 morphological traits. Among the genotypes, almost all the traits exhibited highly significant variation. The higher extent of genotypic (GCV) as well as phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were noticed for number of tillers hill−1, total number of spikelets panicle−1, number of filled grains panicle−1, and yield hill−1. High heritability together with high genetic advance was observed for total number of spikelets panicle−1, number of filled grains panicle−1, and yield hill−1 indicating dominant role of additive gene action in the expression of these traits. Number of filled grains panicle−1 exhibited positive correlation with most of the traits. Yield hill−1 showed a good number of highly significant positive correlations with number of filled grain panicle−1, total number of spikelets panicle−1, 1000 grain weight hill−1, number of panicle hill−1, and panicle length. The UPGMA dendrogram divided all the genotypes in to six major clusters. The PCA showed 13 morphological traits generated about 71% of total variation among all the genotypes under this study. On the basis of 13 morphological traits, genotypes such as IRBB2, IRBB4, IRBB13, IRBB21, and MR263 could be hybridized with genotypes MR84, MR159, MRQ50, MRQ74, PH9 and IR8 in order to develop suitable BB resistant rice genotypes

Grain quality performance and heritability estimation in selected F1 rice genotypes

A total of 17 rice genotypes consisted of 12 F1 progenies and five parental lines were evaluated for performance of grain qualities, yield and yield components and vegetative traits at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) Research Station in Seberang Perai, Penang. Except grain length, all other grain quality characters, yield components and vegetative traits varied significantly among the genotypes. Among the studied characters, the highest heritability value was observed in plant height with 99.75% followed by panicle length having 96.90% and grain shape with 56.70% which could be successfully inherited to the next generations. The rest of the traits had low heritability values and ranged from 20.24 to 35.88%. This indicates that the characters are mainly influenced by environmental factors such as geographical effects and climate. However, in the quantitative traits such as grain qualities and yield components, they are usually difficult to inherit to the next generation due to low heritability values. The combinations of Q76 and MR84 had the highest in amylose content while Q76 and MRQ74 had the lowest. Several selected F1 indica rice genotypes from this evaluation are useful for future breeding programme and biotechnological research for the improvement of valuable grain quality traits

Gene flow from Clearfield® rice to weedy rice under field conditions

Imidazolinone-herbicide-resistant Clearfield® (CL) rice permits the selective chemical control of weedy rice (Oryza sativa), a major weed problem in South-East Asian rice growing countries. However, there is major concern involving resistant individuals resulting from gene flow as the cultivated and weedy rice live side by side in the fields. An experiment was conducted in the rice fields of Kuala Rompin, Pahang, Malaysia to determine which Clearfield® rice cultivars and weedy rice cultivars are more prone to hybridization, and the effect on distance between the pollen donor and receptor plants. The experiment was piloted in a split plot design with four replications. Encircled population technique was used to determine the distance between the Clearfield® rice and detection of hybrids (F1). Resistance of progeny was determined after spraying with OnDuty™ and the confirmation of hybrids was done using the SSR primer RM251. Higher survival rate was recorded with cv. CL2 which was significantly different from cv. CL1. Weedy rice cultivar V1 and V2 in CL1 plots differed significantly from the same cultivar from CL2 plots. However, no significant difference was observed between weedy rice cultivars of V3 and V4, either in CL1 or CL2 plots. No survivors were found after second spraying. Suspected hybrids were found up to 5 m however the rate was much lower compared to only 1 m from the CL plots

Morphophysiological and yield attributes of groundnut varieties under different salinity stress conditions

The study sought to evaluate the response of three groundnut genotypes (Binachinabadam-3, Dacca-1 and Zhingabadam) to various salt concentrations (D0 – Control, D1 – 2.5 dS/m, D2 – 5.0 dS/m, D3 – 7.5 dS/m, D4 – 10.0 dS/m, D5 – 12.5 dS/m) through observation of morphological and physiological characters. Based on relative performance of yield contributing characters and nutrient contents of leaves and stem, Binachinabadam-3 emerged to be a tolerant variety and based on root shoot characters, Dacca-1 appeared as tolerant while Zhingabadam always performed as sensitive variety. Salinity treatments had most adverse effects at flowering stage and followed the trend of sensitivity as flowering stage > vegetative stage> pre sowing stage > pod filling stage. All varieties were found to be tolerant up to salinity level of 7.5 dS/m

Potential allelopathic effects of rice plant aqueous extracts on germination and seedling growth of some rice field common weeds

Given the increasing emphasis on sustainable agriculture, and concerns about the adverse effects of extensive use of farm chemicals, research attention is now being focused on reducing the dependence upon synthetic herbicides, and finding alternative strategies for weed management. Allelopathic properties of crop plants may allow us to use lower amounts of herbicides with benefits for the environment and human health. Considering these aspects, the present study was conducted to investigate the allelopathic effects of six selected rice varieties (WITA-3, WITA-4, WITA-12, Woo-Co, Fukuhibiki and Kalizira) collected from Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) on seed germination and seedling growth of five weed species; Echinochloa crus-galli, Cyperus difformis, Cyperus iria, Fimbristylis milliacea and weedy rice. The aqueous extracts of all the rice cultivars caused inhibitory effects on seed germination and seedling shoot-root length of all the weed species. However, the inhibitory effects of different rice varieties varied significantly based on the differences of weed species and weedy rice found to be the least affected compared to other weeds. WITA-12 resulted about 50% germination inhibition, 25% shoot length reduction and 23% root length reduction respectively compared to control. On the basis of average percentage inhibition, rice varieties ranked in order; WITA-12>WITA- 4>Fukuhibiki>Kalizira>Woo-Co>WITA-3. Our results suggested that there is a possibility of developing a new ecological weed management strategy using rice cultivars with higher allelopathic potentials. This means breeding of rice cultivars with higher allelopathic potential may provide natural and sustainable weed management options for rice growers

De novo assembly of transcriptomes, mining, and development of novel EST-SSR markers in Curcuma alismatifolia (Zingiberaceae family) through Illumina sequencing

Curcuma alismatifolia widely used as an ornamental plant in Thailand and Cambodia. This species of herbaceous perennial from the Zingiberaceae family, includes cultivars with a wide range of colours and long postharvest life, and is used as an ornamental cut flower, as a potted plant, and in exterior landscapes. For further genetic improvement, however, little genomic information and no specific molecular markers are available. The present study used Illumina sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly of two C. alismatifolia cvs, ‘Chiang Mai Pink’ and ‘UB Snow 701’, to develop simple sequence repeat markers for genetic diversity studies. After de novo assembly, 62,105 unigenes were generated and 48,813 (78.60%) showed significant similarities versus six functional protein databases. In addition, 9,351 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeats (EST-SSRs) were identified with a distribution frequency of 12.5% total unigenes. Out of 8,955 designed EST-SSR primers, 150 primers were selected for the development of potential molecular markers. Among these markers, 17 EST-SSR markers presented a moderate level of genetic diversity among three C. alismatifolia cultivars, one hybrid, three Curcuma, and two Zingiber species. Three different genetic groups within these species were revealed using EST-SSR markers, indicating that the markers developed in this study can be effectively applied to the population genetic analysis of Curcuma and Zingiber species. This report describes the first analysis of transcriptome data of an important ornamental ginger cultivars, also provides a valuable resource for gene discovery and marker development in the genus Curcuma. © 2019, The Author(s)