Morpho-genetic characterization of scented radhunipagal rice landrace of South Bengal

Radhunipagal is a traditional small-grained non-Basmati type scented rice of rahr (red and laterite) and gangetic plain region of West Bengal. With a view to develop the phenotypic and genetic database of the unique variety, the agro-morphological characterization of Radhunipagal rice was done following DUS test guidelines of PPV&FRA at ‘C’ Block Farm, B.C.K.V., Kalyani, West Bengal during kharif (wet) season of 2012, 2013 and 2014. The variety had long statured plants (scale 7, 135–145 cm height) with distinct anthocyanin colouration on lower nodes and internodes; and it had late heading (120–125 days) and late maturity (scale 7, 150–155 days). The flower was bi-sexual including six yellow coloured anthers, and an ovary with light purple coloured feathery stigma. The colour of lemma and palea of matured grain was straw with purple spot at tip and the grains were awnless, short in length (5.8 mm) with very low test weight (10.03 g). The white-coloured kernels were short-bold (length 3.57 mm and width 1.86 mm) in shape, and the cultivar had low amylose content (17.0%), medium gelatinization temperature (alkali value 3.2) and medium-strong aroma. The DNA-based study using 23 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for Radhunipagal rice against non-aromatic international check (IR 36) revealed that two markers (RM 42 and RM 310) recorded near-similar molecular weights for both the varieties, while other two markers (RM 339 and RM 341) made greater genetic distances (184 vs. 143 bp and 138 vs. 175 bp, respectively) between Radhunipagal and IR 36.