Genetic Diversity Study of African Rice (Oryza glaberrima) and its Wild Relatives using Microsatellites Markers

The Africa Rice Center Gene Bank hold about 2,500 accessions of Oryza glaberrima. To understand well the genetic diversity in O. glaberrima and its wild species, the use of molecular tools is prominent. The sample consisted of 217 accessions of O. glaberrima, 46 of O. barthii and 7 of O. sativa (checks) was genotyped with 21 polymorphic microsatellites markers. A total of 245 alleles were detected with average 11.67 alleles per locus. Number of alleles was ranged from 2 (RM124) to 20 (RM536). The polymorphic information content value was 0.49 while the heterozygosity was 0.091. The result showed that the sample can be clustered into four genotypic groups. Two groups among them were homogeneous. The first one consisted of O. barthii accessions with 82 alleles in total with average 3.90 alleles per locus. However, the second one consisted of only O. glaberrima accessions with 122 alleles with average 5.80 alleles per locus. O. glaberrima accessions were analyzed using model-based population structure. Results revealed two groups among O. glaberrima accessions. At the end, the identified core collection has 26 accessions consisted of 16 O. glaberrima and 10 O. barthii based on 21 microsatellites markers.