Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Basmati Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Germplasm Collected from North Western Himalayas Using Trait Linked SSR Markers.

One hundred forty one basmati rice genotypes collected from different geographic regions of North Western Himalayas were characterized using 40 traits linked microsatellite markers. Number of alleles detected by the abovementioned primers were 112 with a maximum and minimum frequency of 5 and 2 alleles, respectively. The maximum and minimum polymorphic information content values were found to be 0.63 and 0.17 for the primers RM206 and RM213, respectively. The genetic similarity coefficient for the most number of pairs ranged between of 0.2-0.9 with the average value of 0.60 for all possible combinations, indicating moderate genetic diversity among the chosen genotypes. Phylogenetic cluster analysis of the SSR data based on distance divided all genotypes into four groups (I, II, III and IV), whereas model based clustering method divided these genotypes into five groups (A, B, C, D and E). However, the result from both the analysis are in well agreement with each other for clustering on the basis of place of collection and geographic region, except the local basmati genotypes which clustered into three subpopulations in structure analysis comparison to two clusters in distance based clustering. The diverse genotypes and polymorphic trait linked microsatellites markers in the present study will be used for the identification of quantitative trait loci/genes for different economically important traits to be utilized in molecular breeding programme of rice in the future.