Genetic diversity in rice (2)
•Germplasm: A diverse collection of rice accessions was used, from the 2 subspecies of rice and 2 wild species.
•Markers: 111 SSR markers distributed across the rice genome
•Software used: SAS (SAS Institute 2003, http://www.sas.com/).
•Results: In accordance with previous reports, it was found that the indica group is more variable than japonica. Levels of diversity were evaluated for all chromosomes, making comparisons possible. This information will be useful for breeding programmes, as the level of success of MAB can be better predicted depending on within which region the gene of interest is located. Two subsets of 31 and 37 markers were found to give as much information as the original set, suggesting that smaller numbers of markers can be used in assessing genetic diversity.