POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION OF COASTAL RICE GERMPLASM OF BANGLADESH BASED ON MORPHO-QUALITATIVE TRAITS

Across the natural abundance of coastal rice in Bangladesh, there is a need for systemic characterization of rice diversity. In this study, the qualitative phenotypic trait-based characterization featuring 82 local rice germplasm sampled from the coastal belt of Bangladesh, are reported. Among the 26-character variables, major gene contribution beyond 0.9 was recorded in 14 characters. The medium green leaf blade color showed the highest gene diversity of 0.480. Character efficiency content ranged from 0.370 (medium green leaf blade) to 0.024 (horizontal leaf blade attitude and upper half flag leaf attitude). According to the analysis of morphological variance, 90% of morphological variations were found within the individuals, while 10% was recorded among the populations. STRUCTURE-based analysis categorized the 82 germplasm into six subpopulations, where subpopulation 5 possessed absolute (100%) admixtures. Across all the groups, a moderate genetic differentiation was indicated with an Fst value of 0.168. The G statistics also supported the record. Between population 4 and 6, a maximum of 0.318 was reported as the Shannon mutual information index. As for the gene exchange, the highest value showed between population 1 and population 2. From our findings, there is an indication of rich variability in the coastal belt of Bangladesh.