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Assessment of genetic diversity is important in plant breeding if there is to be improvement by selection. The role of a broad genetic base and systematically characterized germplasm in the crop improvement of cultivated plants has been well recognized. Genetic variability studies are important in selection of parents for hybridization as sound crop improvement depends upon the magnitude of variability in the base population. In the present investigation five rice genotypes were evaluated for genetic diversity. Upon PCR amplification the alleles were separated on Agarose Gel Electrophoresis system. Initial polymorphism detection was conducted using twenty primer pairs distributed on five rice chromosomes. A total of 65 alleles were detected with an average of 3.25 alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content (PIC) reflections of alleles diversity frequency among the varieties, which is ranged from 0.215 to 0.791, with an average of 0.493. RM 260 was found as the best marker for identification of genotypes as revealed by PIC values. The highly informative markers identified in this study could be utilized in further studies for comparative mapping and marker assisted selection for drought tolerance.
Keywords: Genetic Diversity, SSR, Oryza sativa, Molecular markers