Vikash Sharma, Yogendra Singh, S. K. Singh, Stuti Sharma, Kanchan Bhan, and Chandrabhan Ahirwar
Researcher, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding · College of Agriculture, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV), Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
Genetics and Plant BreedingIndiaRiceGermplasm Conservation
Qualitative Morphological Characterisation and Assessment of Genetic Diversity among Indigenous Landraces of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Surveying 254 rice accessions from Madhya Pradesh against 30 standardised DUS descriptors, researchers found near-total uniformity in basic leaf traits but the widest variation of the whole study in awn length — a practical shortlist of traits for telling indigenous landraces apart.
- ▸Leaf collar and ligule presence were completely monomorphic across all 254 accessions (100% present, SWDI = 0.00), while panicle length of the longest awn recorded the highest diversity index of any trait studied (SWDI = 1.55), followed by awn colour (1.43), spikelet colour of the lemma tip (1.41), and lemma-and-palea colour (1.40).
- ▸Panicle branch attitude was highly variable (SWDI = 1.28), with semi-erect (40.94%), erect (30.70%), and erect-to-semi-erect (17.32%) types predominating among the 250 farmer-maintained landraces and four check varieties evaluated at JNKVV, Jabalpur during kharif 2024.
- ▸Flag-leaf attitude diversity roughly doubled between growth stages — from moderate at the early observation (SWDI = 0.89, erect 51.96%) to high by the late observation (SWDI = 1.32, adding horizontal 16.92% and deflexed 12.59% classes) — showing that the timing of DUS scoring changes how much variation gets captured.
- ▸Panicle curvature of the main axis (SWDI = 1.22) and panicle exertion (SWDI = 1.03) also showed considerable diversity, alongside pigmentation traits such as stigma colour (SWDI = 0.92) and lemma-keel anthocyanin colouration (SWDI = 0.92), confirming panicle architecture and pigmentation as the primary axes of variation in this indigenous rice germplasm collection.