Development of physical color reference for Indonesia paddy collection

Abstract

One of the objectives of genebank management is to maintain the genetic identity of its collection. In order to maintain the genetic identity, it is important to check new seed against a reference collection. A simple morphological character for determining the reference collection is the color of lemma and palea. Lemma and palea is a pair of bract-like organ in the floret and have similar pattern of pigmentation and therefore can be treated together. The color of lemma and palea determine the seed color. To develop reference collection for grain color characterization of rice germplasm in the Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development (ICABIOGRAD) Genebank, 1,000 sample of seeds produced from different year of regeneration are characterized based on the lemma and color categories of the IRRI guidelines for the characterization and evaluation system. Samples of each category were then arranged and photographed. From 11 categories of lemma and palea color described in the guidelines, there are six color categories available from genebank rice collection, whereas five color categories were not found. The six available color categories were straw, golden, brown spot in the straw background, brown line in the straw background, brown, orange-brown and black. Five color categories were not found in the collections i.e. red-purple, purple spots on straw, purple line on straw, purple and white. This material reference could be used for characterization of Indonesian rice. The seeds of the absent categories might need to be aquisitated to the genebank to complete the reference collection.