Aromatic rice gets a premium price in the world market. Besides basmati, there are other aromatic rice varieties in India. Kerala, for instance, has unique aromatic rice cultivars such as Jeerakasala and Gandhakasala. These two varieties recently received geographical indication tags from the Government of India. It is important to identify and preserve these unique rice types to prevent adulteration and also to facilitate the breeding of new varieties.
Scientists use molecular markers in DNA to differentiate aromatic from non-aromatic rice at the seedling stage. This helps select plants for breeding better aromatic rice.
What are the distinguishing molecular markers for Jeerakasala and Gandhakasala, the aromatic cultivars in Kerala?
P. Sindhumole, S. Sajini and S. G. Waghmare from the Kerala Agricultural University set out to identify DNA-based molecular markers to differentiate between aromatic and non-aromatic rice varieties. For comparison, they used rice varieties without aroma such as Jyothi and Aathira.
Molecular markers such as simple sequence repeats, short DNA sequences that are repeated many times in tandem, can vary from individual to individual. The researchers selected five microsatellite-based primers linked with the fragrance in rice.
The extracted DNA of the four varieties in bulk and amplified them along with the primers or sequences that are specific to the markers. Electrophoresis of the amplified products showed distinct bands where the primers were bound. Thus they could identify three short sequences of DNA markers out of five that are present in the aromatic rice but not in the nonaromatic rice varieties of Kerala.
One of the markers, located in chromosome 5 is valid in 12 other aromatic varieties of rice. The other two were located in chromosomes 8 and 11 of rice.
Now using these three markers, Jeerakasala and Gandhakasala rice varieties can be distinguished from non-aromatic varieties of Kerala. So these simple sequence repeat markers can be used for DNA fingerprinting and marker-assisted breeding.
Genet Resour Crop Evol. 10 July (2023);
DOI: 10.1007/s10722-023-01668-8
Saravanan, M
Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur
STEAMindiaReports 
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