Assessment of morphological characteristics among upland rice (Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima) germplasm

Abstract

Rice is an important staple food crop that feeds over half of the global population and has become the cereal that provides a major source of calories for the urban and rural poor in Africa. This work aimed to evaluate the morphological of rice (Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima) germplasm. In the present study, 14 quantitative traits were used across 48 accessions or genotypes obtained from Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), Liberia and Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute (PGRRI), Ghana. In this research, Completely Randomized Design was conducted to study the genetic variability among the 48 genotypes or accessions obtained from CARI, Liberia and PGRRI, Ghana. Field data taken included 14 quantitative traits scored using the IRRI descriptor list. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant difference (P≤ 0.01) among the accessions for all quantitative traits studied. Four significant principal components analysis were identified and accounted for 55.3%. PC1 had Eigen-value of 18.5%, whereas PC2 accounted for Eigen-value of 14.5%. PC3 contributed 12.2% whereas PC4 had 10.1%. Correlation analysis indicated the length of ligule was highly significant and positive leaf width blade. Similar observation was made with grain length and length of ligule. Some accessions in the biplot showed longer vector distances, while shorter vector distances were observed referencing PC1; Gh1578 recorded the longest vector distances while Gh1526 and LAC 23-1, recorded the moderate distances from the vector origin at the similarity coefficients at 90%. The highly distant genetic diversity was found between ACSS37 and ACSS1 from Ghana and Liberia. Cluster X was the largest of all the clusters while Clusters VII and VIII were the second largest clusters with seven accessions each. The outcome of this study should be useful for the management of the germplasm conservation and future rice genetic improvement. However, all the accessions may be cultivated over time at different locations on the field to ascertain their stability and purity.