Evaluation of gene flow and genetic diversity in rice accessions across Kurdistan region-iraq using SSR markers

Background In recent years, farmers have complained that the only way to obtain seeds is to select plants that show good performance under local climate conditions in the region. This study aimed to investigate the diversity of rice accessions grown in the region to build a breeding program. Methods and results A total of 62 accessions of rice from farmers and research stations were collected from the Kurdistan region, including short-grain and long-grain types, for molecular genetics and diversity analysis. In this study, 37 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were selected with several molecular genetics software programs. The results show that these SSR markers are very effective for this investigation, generating a total of 152 observed alleles (Na), 75.166 Effective number of alleles (Ne) and an average of 4.1 and 2.03 alleles per locus, respectively. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) per locus was recorded as 0.404. The research presented here confirms two subpopulations, japonica (C1 and C2) and indica (C3), based on molecular genetics data analysis. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that the 72% variance was due to the variation among populations and 28% within the population. Conclusions Altogether, these results indicate that there is very low gene flow. These results show the importance of the study of genetic diversity and relationships for starting breeding and improvement programs for rice in the Kurdistan region.

Automated summary

This study investigated the diversity of rice accessions grown in the Kurdistan region, revealing two subpopulations and indicating very low gene flow. The results of this research provide important information for initiating breeding and improvement programs for rice in the Kurdistan region.