Seed morphological traits and genotypic diversity of weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) populations found in the Thai Hom Mali rice fields of north‐eastern Thailand

Abstract

Weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) is a problematic weed in the Thai Hom Mali rice production areas of Thung Kula Ronghai in north‐eastern Thailand. There is a great need to initiate studies of weedy rice populations in order to perform basic studies to learn about the seed morphology and genetic diversity. The aims of this study were to determine the seed morphological traits and amylose content and to evaluate the genetic variation, based on the polymorphisms of nuclear and chloroplast DNA, of weedy rice. The seeds and flag leaves were collected from a total of 125 weedy rice plants at six rice fields in the region. For the samples, four morphological traits, the amylose content, and the chloroplast identity (ID) sequence and microsatellite genotypes at the waxy locus were determined. The weedy rice that was collected from the Thung Kula Ronghai region varied considerably in its amylose content and both the seed morphology and genotypes. Some of the weedy rice shared the common microsatellite alleles and chloroplast ID sequence with Thai Hom Mali and wild rice, Oryza rufipogon, indicating that the weedy rice in this region might originate from the introgression between cultivated rice and O. rufipogon, which often takes place in nature, mostly in a one‐way process from cultivated rice to O. rufipogon.