Marker Validation and Sequencing in Aromatic Landrace Mushk Budji

Aroma trait imparts specialty to rice and enhances its economic value in the market. Most aromatic genotypes are known to possess a truncated version of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase gene, imparting aroma. Temperate rice varieties of Kashmir, India, have not been assessed for allelic variants of this fragranceimparting gene. Herein we report allelic variations present in exon 7 of this gene in the popular scented rice Mushk Budji. Unlike basmati-type genotypes, Mushk Budji is a short and bold japonica rice which grows at high altitudes and is cold-tolerant. Moreover, aroma retention after cooking is better in Mushk Budji compared to Pusa Sugandh 3, a long and thin basmati- type rice adapted to low-altitude areas of the Kashmir valley. Analysis showed the presence of a deletion of 8 bps ‘GATTATGG’ and three single nucleotide polymorphism in exon 7 of aromatic rice genotypes, including Mushk Budji. No such deletion was found in non-aromatic rice varieties. Additionally, one functional marker for badh2 allele was validated in Mushk Budji. These findings can facilitate the development of short and bold fragrant rice varieties through marker assisted selection, especially for highaltitude cold regions and the temperate valley conditions of Kashmir and the rest of India.