Genetic diversity and differentiation of the African wild rice (Oryza longistaminata chev. et roehr) in Ethiopia

Undomesticated rice species (Oryza longistaminata) which possessed AA genome as O. sativa, is native to Africa and a good candidate for widening the cultivated rice gene pool. So as to use O. longistaminata as a genetic resource in rice breeding, its level of genetic diversity and differentiation must be resolved. Thus, 57 SSR markers across the whole rice genome were used to assess the genetic diversity of 360 O. longistaminata accessions from 12 agroecologies of the Amhara and Gambella regions of Ethiopia. RADSeq based analysis on 87 early maturing O. longistaminata accessions was also done to assess genetic differentiation among the Amhara and Gambella regions of Ethiopia. In this study, the Ethiopian O. longistaminata populations showed high genetic diversity (PIC = 76.5%) with a region based genetic differentiation (Fst = 0.08). Furthermore, genetic relatedness among populations of a region was mainly laid on their geographic provenance. Hence, the high genetic diversity and region based differentiation observed in the Ethiopian O. longistaminata populations could be used as a potential genetic resource in rice improvement programs.