Segregation disortion of anthocyanin morphological marker in F2 population of cross between basmati and environment genic male sterile rice lines

Abstract Basmati rice (Oryza sativa L.) is preferred by many Kenyans yet its yield per hectare is low. This challenge led to initiation of Basmati hybrid rice project in Kenya with a goal of leaping yield benefits of heterosis. Since quality traits in Basmati are under recessive gene control, then the two parents in hybrid programme must possess the traits to avoid their masking at F1 by any other dominant gene. In the process of breeding for suitable parents, Basmati and Environmental genic male sterile lines V1-IR-73827-23-76-15-7S (V1), V2-IR-77271-42-5-4-36S (V2) V3-IR-75589-31-27-8-33S (V3) were crossed to produce F1. All the F1s plants had strong presence of anthocyanin on the base of their stems but segregated at F2 population. Thus, the objective of this study work was to evaluate and understand the mode of anthocyanin gene segregation at F2 population as a potential morphological marker. The F2 population was analyzed to test hypothesis that anthocyanin marker(s) is under simple Mendelian gene control. However, the results obtained indicated that F2 did not obey the Mendelian laws of gene segregation. This led to the conclusion that anthocyanin marker experience segregation distortion in F2 population.