Morphological and molecular characterization of Epagri´s rice germoplasm bank in Santa Catarina State, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this work was to characterize by molecular and morphological procedures the rice entries
of the germplasm bank put out by Santa Catarina State Agricultural Research and Rural Extension Agency-Epagri, with 30
morphological descriptors and 111 AFLP markers. The morphological characterization showed that the entries have wide
genetic divergence, and many interesting features have been identified for use in the genetic improvement of the cereal. The
grouping analysis of the morphological characterization showed more divergence in the separation of the big groups than AFLP,
but, the AFLP was very efficient in detecting variability between the entries. The molecular analisys showed 40% of variability
among entries. Also evident was the narrowing of the genetics of rice cultivars put out for the Southern Region of Brazil.
However, the analysis pointed out that Santa Catarina’s lines and the cultivar SCS 114 Andosan have wide genetic divergence
to the other cultivars. The organization of the germplasm bank and the wealth of information about the diversity contained in
it will be important to facilitate and increase the use of the entries in the rice breeding and germplasm exchange.