Research Projects

In recent years due to acute increase in the lifestyle related diseases and rice being a staple food it is essential to enhance its therapeutic value. Now a days, therapeutic rice has got attention and preference due to health consciousness among consumers. Therapeutic enrichment in rice goes in hand with elevated bioactive molecules and low glycemic index. Accumulation of bioactive molecules viz., polyphenols and flavonoids are high in landraces. So, it would be prudent to incorporate therapeutic properties in high yielding rice varieties through genetic improvement. Phenotyping of polyphenols and flavonoids in seeds is destructive and laborious process. Hence, breeding for therapeutic rice warrants identification of genes or QTLs associated with its biosynthesis pathway and accumulation in grains to accelerate breeding programme. So, it is proposed to map the genomic regions associated with polyphenols and flavonoids in rice grains using identified landraces RG 163 (Mikkuruvai) and RG 105 (IG6) through 50K SNP array. In our pilot study using SSR markers, RM 251 was found to be associated with therapeutic value in rice germplasm. In addition, allele specific markers identified through 50K SNP array will augment the precise selection for trait of interest in MAS and MABC. Accordingly, CO51 a high yielding rice variety, can be improved for polyphenols and flavonoids. Cultivation and consumption of improved version of CO51 for polyphenols and flavonoids will combats non-communicable disease in future. In the due course of proposed breeding programme in our project, homozygous RILs identified with high yield and enhanced phenolic profile will be utilized as donor for future research. Rice germplasm viz., wild species, landraces, advanced cultures is a mammoth genetic resource for novel traits which needs exploration. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) comes in aid to identify genomic regions for gene of interest, population structure using natural variation. Therefore, rice germplasm available in Department of Rice, TNAU, will be explored through GWAS.