SSR and SNP Marker-Based Investigation of Indian Rice Landraces in Relation to Their Genetic Diversity, Population Structure, and Geographical Isolation

India is blessed with an abundance of diverse rice landraces in its traditional cultivated areas. Two marker systems (simple sequence repeats (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)) were used to study a set of 298 rice landrace accessions collected from six different regions of India (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal). Thirty hyper-variable simple sequence repeats (HvSSRs) and 32,782 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were used in inferring genetic structure and geographical isolation. Rice landraces from Uttar Pradesh were the most diverse, with a gene diversity value of 0.42 and 0.49 with SSR and SNP markers, respectively. Neighbor-joining trees classified the rice landraces into two major groups with SSR and SNP markers, and complete geographical isolation was observed with SSR markers. Fast STRUCTURE analysis revealed four populations for SSR markers and three populations for SNP markers. The population structure with SSR markers showed that few individuals from Uttarakhand and Andaman and Nicobar Islands were grouped in small clusters. Population structure analysis with SNP markers showed not very distinct region-wise clustering among the rice landraces. Discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) and minimum spanning network (MSN) using SSR markers showed region-wise grouping of landraces with some intermixing, but DAPC and MSN with SNP markers showed very clear region-wise clustering. Genetic differentiation of rice landraces between the regions was significant with both SSR (Fst 0.094-0.487) and SNP markers (Fst 0.047-0.285). A Mantel test revealed a positive correlation between the genetic and geographic distance of rice landraces. The present study concludes that rice landraces investigated in this study were very diverse, and unlinked SSR markers show better geographical isolation than a large set of SNP markers.

Automated summary

This study investigated the genetic diversity and geographical isolation of 298 rice landraces from six different regions of India using SSR and SNP marker systems. The results showed that rice landraces from Uttar Pradesh were the most diverse, and complete geographical isolation was observed with SSR markers. Population structure analysis revealed different clustering patterns among regions with SSR and SNP markers. The study concluded that unlinked SSR markers showed better geographical isolation than a large set of SNP markers.