Characterization of Aroma and Agronomic Traits in Afghan Native Rice Cultivars

In this study, we collected native aromatic rice cultivars from north, east and northeast of Afghanistan, and check cultivars from Japan, Thailand and India. We characterized some important agronomic characters such as plant height, panicle number per plant, grain number per panicle, 1,000-grain weight, grain length and grain width to find the desirable characters for breeding programs. Many of them were classified into tall culm rice according to IRRI index, but had thin and slender grain, and strong aroma which are favorable characteristics in Afghanistan and surrounding regions. The aromatic character was characterized by three methods, 1.7% KOH sensory test, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring (GC-MS-SIM), and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. These three methods gave similar results. Six out of 10 Afghan native rice cultivars were aromatic and four non-aromatic. Among the check cultivars, Basmati 370, Jasmine 85, Izayoi, Oitakoutou and Jakouine were aromatic and Nipponbare non-aromatic. Improvement of aromatic and high yielding rice and reduction of plant height are the important objectives for rice breeding in Afghanistan. The results showed that Pashadi Konar from Afghanistan has the intermediate plant height, heavier 1,000-grain weight (32 g), longer grain (11 mm) and favorable aroma. Therefore, this cultivar may be a good source of aromatic rice germplasm in Afghanistan. To clarify the genetic nature of aroma in rice, we crossed non-aromatic cultivar Nipponbare with aromatic cultivar Jasmine 85, and examined the aromatic character in the F2 generation by 1.7% KOH sensory test and PCR analysis. Non-aromatic and aromatic characters were segregated at a ratio of 3:1, showing that aroma is controlled by a single recessive gene.