Genetic diversity and molecular analysis for fertility restorer genes in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) for wild abortive (WA) cytoplasm using microsatellite markers

Wild abortive types of male sterile lines are commercially used in the production of hybrid varieties of rice. The present study was carried out with the objective to assess genetic diversity among 22 rice genotypes representative of restorer, maintainer and male sterile lines using SSR markers. Nearly 30 SSR markers have been used, of which 9 markers were selected from the genomic regions of chromosome 1 and 10 on which Rf3 and Rf4 genes were located. Among 30 SSR markers used, 25 SSR loci generated polymorphic patterns and a total of 231 alleles were amplified. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 5 to 17 with a mean of 9.4 alleles per locus. The PIC values for 25 SSR markers varied from 0.74 (RM195, RM10318, and RM258) to 0.92 (RM302). The present study revealed that molecular characterization using SSR markers can be an efficient tool for genotyping the varieties with reasonable accuracy.