SCREENING OF RICE (Oryza sativa L.) GENOTYPES WITH LOW AMYLOSE CONTENT BY USING MOLECULAR MARKERS

The grain quality improvement of rice is considered as an antecedent research area of rice breeding programs in Vietnam. Amylose content is a key determinant of rice cooking quality. A total of 87 rice germplasm were collected from Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute, Vietnam, and clustered on the basis of the phenotypic diversity of amylose content. By using the amylose content of the materials as a quality index, two rice populations (F2) were selected for molecular analysis. Two SSR markers, namely, WxF-R and RM42, showing an association with amylose content in previous reports were selected. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using primers WxF-R and RM42 for the detection of polymorphisms associated with the amylose content of OM5991/OM4900 and OM5992/OM4900 populations. Based on the quality aspect of the amylose content of the tested populations, three and seven lines belonging to OM5991/4900 and OM5992/OM4900, respectively, showed associations with low amylose content in terms of phenotype and genotype. Therefore, the SSR markers WxF-R and RM42 may be useful in marker-assisted breeding for improving rice genotypes with intermediate and low amylose content.