Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Mohan Sundaramoorthy, Veera Ranjani Rajagopalan, Bharathi Ayyenar, Rohit Kambale and Raveendran Muthurajan

Abstract:
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food for more than 60% of the world’s population and the most widely grown cereal. In the context of rapidly increasing world’s population there is a need to increase grain yield. Any further increase in rice yields has to overcome challenges due to yield plateau, declining resources and climate change. Increasing yield potential in rice requires discovery of novel genes and alleles from rice gene pool or genetic manipulation of novel traits like C4 photosynthesis. Therefore, identifying the superior alleles governing yield component traits is necessary to increase the rice grain yield. In this study, efforts were made to survey the allelic diversity of a major yield gene DEP1 (Dense and Erect Panicle 1) in a diverse set of 217 rice germplasm by utilizing the sequence information available from IRRI 3K rice genome sequencing project. Allelic diversity analysis identified the presence of 18 INDELs and 44 SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) in DEP1. Haplotype analysis identified creation of three haplotypes viz., H1, H2 and H3 which can be utilized for further association mapping.