It has a long history of rice cultivating in Taihu Lake region, with abounds rice landraces resources. The research on the genetic diversity of rice landraces resources can provide some reference for the protection and utilization of high-quality germplasm resources and breeding of new varieties. In this study, we reviewed the concepts of genetic diversity, research methods, genetic diversity of quality traits of rice landraces in Taihu Lake region and summarized the relevant utilization value of the rice landraces from Taihu Lake region.
There are nearly 1 000 rice landrace varieties in the Taihu basin, China. To assess the genetic diversity of the rice, 24 intragenic molecular markers(representing 17 starch synthesis-related genes) were investigated in 115 Taihu basin rice landraces and 87 improved cultivars simultaneously. The results show that the average genetic diversity and polymorphism information content values of the landraces were higher than those of improved cultivars. In total, 41 and 39 allele combinations(of the 17 genes) were derived from the landraces and improved cultivars, respectively; only two identical allele combinations were found bet ween the two rice variety sources. Cluster analysis, based on the molecular markers, revealed that the rice varieties could be subdivided into five groups and, within these, the japonica improved rice and japonica landrace rice varieties were in two separate groups. According to the quality reference criteria to classify the rice into grades, some of the landraces were found to perform we ll, in terms of starch quality. For example, according to NY /T595-2002 criteria from the Ministry of Agriculture of China, 25 and 33 landraces reached grade 1, in terms of their apparent amylose content and gel consistency. Th e varieties that had outstanding quality could be used as breeding materials for rice quality breeding programs in the future. Our study is useful for future applications, such as genetic diversity studies, the protection of rice variety and improvment of rice quality in breeding programs.
AO YanXU YongCUI Xiao-fenWANG AnTENG FeiSHEN Li-qunLIU Qiao-quan
