Genetics of gel consistency in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Abstract

Inheritance of gel consistency in rice was studied in crosses involving highamylose, low-gelatinizalion temperature parents with hard, medium, and soft gel consistency. The results of single-grain analysis of parents, F₁, F₂, B₁F₁, B₂F₂, and their reciprocal crosses from a single-season harvest showed that the differences between hard and soft, hard and medium, and medium and soft gel consistency are under monogenic control and that modifiers affect the expression of the trait. Multiple alleles at the same locus, hereby designated as gec^a for medium gel consistency and gec^b for soft gel consistency, were recessive to the wild type allele for hard gel consistency and gec^a was dominant over gec^b. The results indicate that selection for desired gel consistency can effectively be done in early segregating generations.