Genetic potential and diversity of rice land races for grain Fe content

Abstract

The study was aimed to identify rice genotypes with high Fe content and to study the extent of genetic divergence based on morphological and grain quality traits in a set of 50 native landraces of rice.Wide variation for grain Fe content was observed among the studied genotypes, which ranged from 9.28–14.45 mgkg^− 1and 1.88–4.87mgkg^− 1in brown and polished rice respectively. The genotypes viz.,Jaya, Kalanamak, KottaraSamba, Gandakasala and Gopal bhog recorded high grain Fe contentbefore polishing whereas,KottaraSamba, KalapathiBlack, Jyothi, Chinnar and Kalanamakwere found to have high Fe content after polishing.Interestingly, landraces possessing red seed coat color and medium slender grain group were identified to possess high grain Fe content. This was further substantiated by the correlation study where kernel breadth recorded negative association with Fe content after polishing. Clustering resulted into five groups where the high Fe content possessing genotypes were grouped into clustersviz., two and four. Thus, these genotypes could be utilized as donors in further biofortification breeding programmes.