Genetic dissection of eating and cooking qualities in different subpopulations of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) through association mapping.

BACKGROUND: Eating and cooking qualities (ECQs) of rice (Oryza sativa L.) determine consumer acceptance and the economic value of rice varieties. The starch physicochemical properties, i.e. amylose content, gel consistency, gelatinization temperature and pasting viscosity are important indices for evaluating rice ECQs. Genetic factors are required for development of rice varieties with excellent ECQs and association mapping is one of the promising approaches for discovering such associated genetic factors. RESULTS: A genome-wide association mapping was performed on a set of 253 non-glutinous rice accessions consisting of 83 indica and 170 japonica cultivated rice varieties through phenotyping for 11 ECQ traits in two consecutive years and genotyping with 210 polymorphic SSR and candidate-gene markers. These markers amplified 747 alleles with an average of 3.57 alleles per locus. The structure, phylogenetic relationship, and principal component analysis indicated a strong population differentiation between indica and japonica accessions and association mapping was thus undertaken within indica and japonica subpopulations. All traits showed a large phenotypic variation and highly significant phenotypic correlations were present between most of traits. A total of 33 and 30 loci were located for 11 ECQs in indica and japonica subpopulations respectively. Most of associated loci were overlapped with starch synthesis-related genes (SSRGs), and the Wx locus gathered 14 associated loci with the largest effects on amylose content, gel consistency and pasting viscosities. Eight subpopulation specific markers, RM588, Wx-(CT)n, SSI and SBE1 for indica subpopulation and RM550, Wxmp, SSIIa and SBE4 for japonica subpopulation, were identified, suggesting alleles of SSRGs showed the subspecific tendency. Nevertheless, allelic variation in SSIIa showed no tendency towards subspecies. One associated maker RM550 detected in japonica subpopulation for amylose content and pasting viscosity was verified a potential novel and stably expressed locus and could be selected for further fine mapping. CONCLUSION: This study illustrated the potential for dissecting genetic factors of complex traits in domesticated rice subspecies and provided highly associated markers to facilitate marker-assisted selection for breeding high-quality indica or japonica rice varieties.

Comparative quantitative analysis of headspace volatiles and their association with BADH2 marker in non-basmati scented, basmati and non-scented rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars of India.

For the first time, 91 Indian rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars, belonging to non-basmati scented (77), basmati (9) and non-scented (5) categories, were quantitatively analysed for 23 headspace volatiles. In addition, the BADH2 marker related to 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP) synthesis is validated among the cultivars representing these categories. The non-basmati scented cultivars (15) excelled in 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP) content compared to basmati cultivars. The major aroma volatile (2AP) correlated positively with 1-tetradecene and indole, and negatively with benzyl alcohol. On the basis of nonanal, octanal, decanal and 1-octen-3-ol contents, basmati cultivars were different from non-scented cultivars. Benzyl alcohol, 2-phenylethanol, 2-amino acetophenone, indole, 1-hexanol and nonanoic acid exhibited significant variation among rice categories under study. This study reports 16 non-basmati scented cultivars with variations in the BADH2 locus rendering a marker based on 8bp deletion in BADH2 as unsuitable for MAS in rice cultivars under study.