A database of wild rice germplasm ofOryza rufipogonspecies complex from different agro-climatic zones of India

Abstract

Rice is a staple food for the people of Asia that supplies more than 50% of the food energy globally. It is widely accepted that the crop domestication process has left behind substantial useful genetic diversity in their wild progenitor species that has huge potential for developing crop varieties with enhanced resistance to an array of biotic and abiotic stresses. In this context, Oryza rufipogon, Oryza nivara and their intermediate types wild rice germplasm/s collected from diverse agro-climatic regions would provide a rich repository of genes and alleles that could be utilized for rice improvement using genomics-assisted breeding. Here we present a database of detailed information on 614 such diverse wild rice accessions collected from different agro-climatic zones of India, including 46 different morphological descriptors, complete passport data and DNA fingerprints. The information has been stored in a web-based database entitled ‘Indian Wild Rice (IWR) Database’. The information provided in the IWR Database will be useful for the rice geneticists and breeders for improvement of rice cultivars for yield, quality and resilience to climate change.Database URL: http://nksingh.nationalprof.in: 8080/iwrdb/index.jsp

A genome-wide association study in Indian wild rice accessions for resistance to the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne graminicola

“…Due to ever increasing population pressure and rapid urbanization wild rice resources are depleting at an alarming rate. The Indo-Burma region is considered the biodiversity hotspot of wild rice populations [24,25].…”

A genome-wide association study in Indian wild rice accessions for resistance to the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne graminicola

“…For example, resistance to grassy stunt virus, bacterial leaf blight, neck blast and brown plant hopper was successfully introgressed into the cultivated rice from their wild relatives [32][33][34]. A number of bene cial traits including tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses have been lost in cultivated rice which possesses a narrow genetic base because of domestication and breeding bottlenecks [23,24]. According to an estimate, modern rice varieties have retained only 20% of the genetic diversity present in their wild relatives [35].…”

“…According to an estimate, modern rice varieties have retained only 20% of the genetic diversity present in their wild relatives [35]. India has unprecedented diversity of wild rice germplasm and landraces that are spread over fteen diverse agro-climatic zones [23,24]. Therefore, these untapped genetic resources were taken as the prime candidates for the association panel in our study in order to unravel the conserved loci that govern M. graminicola resistance in rice.…”

“…Due to ever increasing population pressure and rapid urbanization wild rice resources are depleting at an alarming rate. The Indo-Burma region is considered the biodiversity hotspot of wild rice populations [23,24].…”

Current status of genomic resources on wild relatives of rice

“…Information regarding salinity and drought tolerance phenotype along with the molecular markers is also available in IWR database which can help geneticists to find and utilize agronomically useful genes in genetic crossing programs. Seeds of the accessions are also available for sharing with rice geneticists and breeders according to the prevailing IPR and Biodiversity rules and guidelines (Tripathy et al 2018).…”