Genetic variability of M2 population obtained from colchicine mutation in black rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Background and Objective: Black rice (Oryza sativa L.) is becoming popular for development of functional foods. However, black rice generally has a long plant life and low productivity. To obtain superior varieties, improvement of phenotype and genotype is necessary. Variety improvement programs require genetic diversity as a basic material in breeding activities. One way to increase variability on black rice is mutation breeding by colchicine. This research aimed to study about genetic variability of M2 population induced colchicine of local genotype black rice from Ungaran. Materials and Methods: This research was conducted in Batu city, East Java fromMarch to August 2017. The data were collected using single plant method and analyzed using student t-test at 5% level. Planting materials were U-K0, U-K250-67, U-K250-68, U-K500-79, U-K500-83, U-K750-5, U-K750-41 local genotypes Ungaran population M2 results of colchicine induction. Results: The population of M2 from the colchicine mutation had low to rather high category of Genotype Coefficient of Variability (GCV) in all the character of quantitative observation. Most of the population had high value of heritability on all quantitative characters. Selected plants from this population based on quantitative character and cytological observation were U-K250-67-8, U-K250-67-129, U-K250-68-4, U-K250-68-103, U-K500-79-6, U-K500-79-144, U-K500-83-9, U-K500-83-43, U-K500-83-58, U-K750-5-8, and U-K750-41-4. Conclusion: M2 population of black rice had low to rather high genetic variability. Observation on cytological characters showed that there were 11 plants that had more number of chromosomes than control.