Molecular characterisation of upland Ofada cultivars and NERICA rice for drought tolerance and their genetic relationships

Abstract

Tolerance to water deficit had been reported in Ofada and NERICA rice. The genetic basis of this is unknown. The objective of this experiment was to characterise the genetic basis for tolerance of upland Ofada and NERICA rice to water deficit and determine their genetic relationship. Genomic studies were conducted on upland Ofada rice genotypes (Golden red, straw gold, FUNAABOR 1 and 2) and NERICA rice (NERICA 7 and 8). Among the seven simple sequence repeats markers (RM 212, 36, 3805, 201 and 1115) genetically evaluated two (RM 72 and RM 316) were selected based on their polymorphism (Polymorphic information content and markers index). They both exhibited QTL brt8-12 and QRsf9 in RM 72 and RM 316 respectively, known for drought tolerance. Upland rice cultivars Golden Red, NERICA 8 and NERICA 7 exhibited higher QTL brt8-12 based on their gene ladder more than others on the RM 72 primer. NERICA 7, FUNAABOR 1 and FUNAABOR 2 occupied the highest DNA ladder in the marker RM 316, suggesting the high presence of the QTL QRsf9. Golden Red and NERICA 8 had similar genetic relationship and are better utilised with those of dissimilar sources (Straw Gold) to ensure desirable genetic variation.

Keywords: DNA marker, genetic crop improvement, polymorphic information content, Quantitative trait Loci (QTL), Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR),