Genetic diversity in Basmati Rices using PCR based Molecular Markers

Rice (Oryza sativa) is the world's single most important food crop and a primary food source for more than a third of world's population.India is one of the original centers of rice cultivation. The harvesting area of the rice in India is the largest in the world. India possesses an immense wealth of aromatic rice germplasm and land races exhibiting a wide variability with respect to their morpho-physiological, agronomic, grain and cooking characteristics. Earlier, a large number of such varieties were collectively known as Basmati (bas = aroma).Molecular markers are generally classified into (i) Hybridization based (non PCR) and (ii) PCR based markers. Hybridization based markers involve restriction digestion and hybridization of the restricted DNA fragments to a labeled probe such as in RFLPs and VNTRs, where as PCR based markers involves amplification of isolated DNA. ). These PCR based markers are technically simple and require only small amount of DNA.