GENETIC DIVERSITY OF QUALITY TRAITS OF JAPONICA RICE VARIETIES

Twenty japonica rice varieties were used to evaluate the genetic diversity of rice quality characteristics and compared with 6 SSR markers reported association with the target traits. The results of rice quality analysis showed that most of the rice varieties have short to medium grain length, medium to bold shape. Amylose content is classified into 4 groups as glutinous rice, low, medium and high. Gel consistency mainly arranges from soft to very soft groups, and the gelatinization temperature is only classified into 2 groups of high and low. Genetic diversity analysis of rice quality characteristics showed that, 20 rice varieties were divided into 4 groups at about 95% similarity among each other. The results of the genotypic analysis showed that, the RM164 and RM203 markers could identify rice varieties with soft to very soft gel consistency and high gelatinzation temperature with an accuracy of 87.5% and 92.3%, respectively. RM230 and RM255 markers could accurately identify rice varieties with short-grain length and bold shape grains. Particularly, the RM230 marker also identifies rice varieties with low to very low amylose content.