Genetic Diversity of Selected Rice Genotypes under Water Stress Conditions

Abstract

Drought is the most challenging abiotic stress for rice production in the world. Thus, developing new rice genotype tolerance to water scarcity is one of the best strategies to achieve and maximize high yield potential with water savings. The study aims to characterize 16 rice genotypes for grain and agronomic parameters under normal and drought stress conditions, and genetic differentiation, by determining specific DNA markers related to drought tolerance using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers and grouping cultivars, establishing their genetic relationship for different traits. The experiment was conducted under irrigated (normal) and water stress conditions. Mean squares due to genotype × environment interactions were highly significant for major traits. For the number of panicles/plants, the genotypes Giza179, IET1444, Hybrid1, and Hybrid2 showed the maximum mean values. The required sterility percentage values were produced by genotypes IET1444, Giza178, Hybrid2, and Giza179, while, Sakha101, Giza179, Hybrid1, and Hybrid2 achieved the highest values of grain yield/plant. The genotypes Giza178, Giza179, Hybrid1, and Hybrid2, produced maximum values for water use efficiency. The effective number of alleles per locus ranged from 1.20 alleles to 3.0 alleles with an average of 1.28 alleles, and the He values for all SSR markers used varied from 0.94 to 1.00 with an average of 0.98. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values for the SSR were varied from 0.83 to 0.99, with an average of 0.95 along with a highly significant correlation between PIC values and the number of amplified alleles detected per locus. The highest similarity coefficient between Giza181 and Giza182 (Indica type) was observed and are susceptible to drought stress. High similarity percentage between the genotypes (japonica type; Sakha104 with Sakha102 and Sakha106 (0.45), Sakha101 with Sakha102 and Sakha106 (0.40), Sakha105 with Hybrid1 (0.40), Hybrid1 with Giza178 (0.40) and GZ1368-S-5-4 with Giza181 (0.40)) was also observed, which are also susceptible to drought stress. All genotypes are grouped into two major clusters in the dendrogram at 66% similarity based on Jaccard’s similarity index. The first cluster (A) was divided into two minor groups A1 and A2, in which A1 had two groups A1-1 and A1-2, containing drought-tolerant genotypes like IET1444, GZ1386-S-5-4 and Hybrid1. On the other hand, the A1-2 cluster divided into A1-2-1 containing Hybrid2 genotype and A1-2-2 containing Giza179 and Giza178 at coefficient 0.91, showing moderate tolerance to drought stress. The genotypes GZ1368-S-5-4, IET1444, Giza 178, and Giza179, could be included as appropriate materials for developing a drought-tolerant variety breeding program. Genetic diversity to grow new rice cultivars that combine drought tolerance with high grain yields is essential to maintaining food security.

Flowering Synchronization in Hybrid Rice Parental Lines at Different Sowing Dates

“…Gramaje et al [25] observed Pearson's correlation and revealed that all of the yield component traits were positively correlated with grain yield. Genetic distance was correlated positively with grain length, panicle number and length: width ratio and correlated negatively with grain width, grain yield and seed setting rate [26,27]. Highly positive and significant phenotypic correlations were observed between yield index and leaf rolling, sterility percentage [28].…”

Effects of different gelling agents on the different stages of rice regeneration in two rice cultivars

“…These genotypes are widely cultivated in Egypt because of desirable features such as their high yield and good taste. While the Giza178 cultivar (Indica/Japonica type) is resistant to blast and tolerant to drought, Sakha104 (Japonica type) is sensitive to both of them ( Gaballah et al, 2021 ). There is a need to explore other factors that might maximize the frequency of regeneration.…”

Impact of Genetic Improvements of Rice on Its Water Use and Effects of Climate Variability in Egypt

“…This is equivalent to increasing rice production by 32.58 thousand tons annually. Recently, Gaballah et al [30] reported that Sakha101 and Giza179 were the best performing inbred genotypes in a study that was conducted under water stress conditions. On the other hand, the average water use efficiency for the cultivars under the current study was estimated to be 0.78 ton/thousand m 3 .…”

“…An extra reduction in irrigation water could be achieved faster by the utilization of modern technologies and developing new cultivars that require comparatively fewer irrigations without any reduction in grain yield and quality traits [29]. Newly improved rice varieties hold great promise toward sustainable rice production in Egypt [30].…”