Assessment of genetic purity in rice using polymorphic SSR markers

<title>Abstract</title> Genetic purity is conventionally performed through Grow-Out-Test (GOT) with morphological characters. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers are independent of G X E interaction. Herewith, 16 high yielding varieties of rice were analyzed using 55 SSR markers for DNA fingerprinting and identification of genetic impurities: 14 were found to be polypmorphic and amplified 48 alleles with an average of 3.43 alleles <italic>per</italic> each primer pair. The number of alleles amplified ranged from 2 to 6 and the size of the PCR products amplified from these 14 primer pairs ranged from 80–450 bp with polymorphic information content (PIC) from 0.14 (RM 346) to 0.99 (RM 5900). PICs at 0.5 or higher are highly informative SSR markers for genetic studies, DNA fingerprinting and scoring polymorphism rate of SSR markers pertinent to specific locus. The 14 polymorphic SSR markers can be used for DUS testing, genetic purity and DNA finger printing of rice varieties.