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Agronomic and Molecular Evaluation of Induced Mutant Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Lines in Egypt

TARIQ SHEHZAD^12*#, ABD ALLAH^3* ABD EL NABY ABD ALLAH³, MEGAHED HELMY AMMAR³ AND AMR FAROUK ABDELKHALIK³

Abstract: The present study was conducted at the farm of the Rice Research and Training Center, Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt, during 2000-2007 rice sowing seasons. Five rice varieties  viz., Giza 171, Giza 175, Giza 176, Giza 181 and GZ 1368 were the most widely grown Japonica and Indica types in Egypt during the last period, possesses at that time many positive agronomic characteristics including wide adaptability, high yield potential, tolerance to stresses and good eating quality. But with the passage of time it has lost its vigor. In Rice Research Program, Egypt, dry seeds of the above mentioned varieties were treated with different doses of gamma rays (100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 Gy) for raising M₁ generation. M₁ plants were established by transplanting in the year 2000 season. One hundred independent lines have been advanced to M₅ generation enabling evaluation of quantitative traits by replicated trials and promising lines were selected and tested in multi-location trials as M₆, M₇ and M₈ generations. Morphological variations at vegetative and reproductive stages including plant type and various physiological characters were observed in the five populations. The mutant lines characteristics consisted of better resistance to lodging, blast disease, high yield potential, as well as early maturity. Results from yield trials and molecular assessments indicated that the mutants differed genetically from their parents. So, these mutants could be used as a donor parents in rice breeding program and some of them can be recommended as new rice varieties suitable for rice belt in Egypt.

Abbreviations: M, mutants; Gy, Gray (SI unit of absorbed radiation dose); SSR, simple sequence repeat.

¹Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, KPK Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan.

²Present address; Laboratory of Plant Genetics and Breeding Science, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

 ³Rice Research and Training Center, Field Crop Research Institute, ARC, Sakura Egypt;

*Authors contributed equally to the manuscript

^*Corresponding author E-mail: tariq@sakura.cc.tsukuba.ac.jp, fax +81-29853-4815