Molecular Genetic Diversity of Landraces, Cultivars and Wild Relatives of Rice of Goa

We studied 51 rice varieties to understand their genetic diversity. Out of 19 ISSR primers, 15 primers produced reproducible bands. Out of 110 ISSR bands, 104 were polymorphic bands with an average of 6.93 bands per primer. The amount of polymorphism varied from 50% to 100%, with an average of 92%. Genetic identity value ranged from 0.5091 to 0.9727, with an average of 0.740. Dendrogram revealed the formation of four major clusters. Wild rice Oryza rufipogon formed a separate clade, indicating its uniqueness. Our study opens up avenues for use of traditional rice varieties for rice breeding, genome-wide association mapping and conservation of rice germplasm.