Use of Allele-Specific Amplification for Rapid Identification of Aromatic and Non-aromatic Rice Germplasms

In the current context of global climate change trends, threat to food and nutrition security, collection, conservation and management, and characterization and evaluation of crop germplasms especially traditional landraces are gaining momentum more than ever before. Aromatic rice is an elite category of cultivated rice having huge sociocultural heritage value, fetching premium prices globally. Hence, its identification, in situ conservation, and appropriate characterization are likely to augment reliability of this distinctive category of rice, and rice commodity chain actors. badh2.1 is recognised as the major allele responsible for rice 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline aroma production in a vast number of aromatic rice globally. However, most of the previous works on the genetics and biochemical pathways of aroma expression in rice have encompassed mainly Basmati, Sadri, Della, Jasmine, and a few modern hybrids. But apart from these spotlighted varieties, a myriad of indigenous, aromatic rice germplasms exists. Allele-specific amplification, a low-cost, accurate method invented by Bradbury et al. 2005, can be utilized successfully for discriminating the rarely explored aromatic and nonaromatic rice as described.