BIOCHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF RED RICE ECOTYPES FROM THE RIO GRANDE DO SUL STATE, BRAZIL

Abstract

Red rice is one of the most important weeds of cultivated rice in Brazil. On the other hand, red rice constitutes a collection of genes lost during the cultivated rice domestication process and has a fundamental importance for recovery of promising genic constitutions. This study had the objective to analyze the genetic variability of a colletion of red rice (Oryza sativa L.) ecotypes from Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, through isoenzimatic and microsatellite markers. Thirty four accesses from the Seed and Biotechnology Laboratory germplasm bank, at Federal University of Pelotas, were analyzed using six isoenzimatic systems and nineteen microsatellite markers. Twenty-three biochemical and 54 molecular alleles were identified and used to estimate the polymorphism (PIC) and genetic similarity indexes. The analyzed red rice population presents large genetic variability, evidencing the potentiality to map characteristics of interest to seed physiology. Biochemical markers of the isoenzime type and molecular markers of the microsatellite type are efficient to estimate the genetic variability in red rice ecotypes.

KEY-WORDS: Oryza sativa; biochemical markers; microsatellite markers; genetic variability.