Field evaluation and selection of rice somaclonal variants at different altitudes

Abstract

A field experiment was designed to compare control with tissue culturederived plants of rice, and to study the effects of natural selection pressure applied to the first generation (RO) of in vitro plants on the performance of their progeny. Control-and RO in vitro plants of four rice varieties from middle altitude in Burundi, i.e. 'Facagro 57', 'Facagro 76', 'Kirundo 3' and 'Kirundo 9', were cultivated at four diflferent altitudes (800, 1380, 1650 and 1900 m). Several parameters concerning tillering capacity, plant height development and seed production were measured. The means for most measured parameters were higher in control plants than in the in vitro plants, while the higher variation coefficients and most extreme values were usually found in the in vitro plants. For each variety, the 20 control plants and 20 in vitro plants having the highest production were selected at each altitude of 1380 and 1650 m, and their progenies were cultivated on the same site at 1580 m. Among the plants arising from 1650 m, most maximum values, higher variation coefficients and, in some cases, higher means were found in the in vitro plants. In contrast, among the plants arising from 1380 m, higher means most usually corresponded to control plants, while the tendency for maximum values and variation coefficients were unclear. These results indicate the positive effect of natural selection pressure applied in the first generation to plants rising from tissue culture. They also demonstrate that considerable variation may be generated in vitro. The interest for plant breeding purposes is discussed.

Chlorophyll fluorescence and lipid peroxidation changes in rice somaclonal lines subjected to salt stress

“…High frequencies of variations were observed in somaclonal rice traits such as chloroplast, plant height and tillering (Oono 1978;Kucherenko 1979). These variations have been repeatedly used to generate novel rice varieties for breeding purposes (Bertin et al 1996;Roy and Mandal 2005;Jubair et al 2008). Communicated by J.…”