Genetic Distances Among Rice Mutant Genotypes Assessed by AFLP and Aluminum Tolerance-Related Traits

Increasing genetic variability with mutagenic agents has been broadly employed in plant breeding because it has the potential to alter one or more desirable traits. In this study, a molecular analysis assessed by Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms(AFLPs) and a morphological analysis based on seedlings subjected to aluminum stress were compared. Also, an analysis of allelic frequencies was performed to observe unique alleles present in the pool. Genetic distances ranging from 0.448 to 0.953 were observed, suggesting that mutation inducing was effective in generating variability. The genetic distances based on morphological data ranged from 0(genotypes 22 and 23) to 30.38(genotypes 15 and 29). In the analysis of allelic frequency, 13 genotypes presented unique alleles, suggesting that mutation inducing was also targeting unique sites. Mutants with good performance under aluminum stress(9, 15, 18 and 27) did not form the same clusters when morphological and molecular analyses were compared, suggesting that different genomic regions may be responsible for their better performance.