Genetic Diversity and Population Structure in Wild Rice Germplasm

Abstract

Wild rice species are rich sources of useful allelic variation for genetic improvement of cultivated rice for improvement of yield and yield-related traits and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. The study of genetic diversity and population structure is a crucial measure for the proper utilization of available genetic resources in a plant breeding program. Seventy-seven wild rice and relatives collected from International Rice Research Institute and different regions of Bangladesh were investigated using 42 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to unveil the population structure and to estimate genetic diversity. A total of 200 alleles were detected, with an average of 4.76 alleles per locus. Besides, 19 unique alleles were found with 16 SSR markers, which can be used as diagnostic tools for germplasm identification. A comparative assessment of STRUCTURE and UPGMA showing a high level of concordance in grouping the wild rice accessions suggested wide divergence among the genotypes and could be utilized for the future rice genomic studies especially for development of stress tolerant rice varieties. The results suggest that the SSR markers are effective for assessing the genetic diversity of wild rice and its related species.

Bangladesh Rice J.29(1): 29-43, 2025