Genetic base of paddy rice cultivars of Southern Brazil
Juliana Vieira Raimondi, Rubens Marschalek and Rubens Onofre Nodari
Abstract – The genetic knowledge of the germplasm is crucial to the plant breeding in order to develop new varieties. This study was carried out to evaluate the genetic similarity of 40 rice cultivars developed in Southern Brazil with the use of two tolls: genealogy and AFLP markers. The genealogy approach showed that 90% of the cultivars were developed from only six parents, revealing a narrow genetic basis among these cultivars. A little genetic diversity among them was confirmed by AFLP markers, since 111 polymorphic markers identified 87% similarity among them. The genetic similarity among the cultivars released by Epagri in Santa Catarina state was lower, compared to that among the cultivars released by others public institutions, Embrapa and Irga. This study has demonstrated that rice cultivars developed in Southern Brazil have narrow genetic base, which suggests high genetic vulnerability risk.