In this study, 29 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to analyze the genetic diversity and population structure of 125 rice accessions from 40 different origins in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and Oceania. A total of 333 alleles were detected, with an average of 11.5 per locus. The mean values of major allele frequency, expected heterozygosity, and polymorphism information content (PIC) for each SSR locus were 0.39, 0.73, and 0.70, respectively. The highest mean PIC was 0.71 for Asia, followed by 0.66 for Africa, 0.59 for South America, 0.53 for Europe, and 0.47 for Oceania. Model-based structure analysis revealed the presence of five subpopulations, which was basically consistent with clustering based on genetic distance. Some accessions were clearly assigned to a single population in which >70% of their inferred ancestry was derived from one of the model-based populations. In addition, 12 accessions (9.6%) were categorized as having admixed ancestry. The results could be used to understanding the genetic structure of rice cultivars from these regions and to support effective breeding programs to broaden the genetic basis of rice varieties.

To facilitate an active breeding strategy for rice quality improvement, mutation were induced by treating rice variety Sindongjin seeds with gamma ray(300 Gray) and its fertilized eggs with MNU(1mM). Endosperm and grain shape of mutants were classified and selected in M2 population. From M2 generation, 48(7.6%) endosperm mutants and 179(11.9%) grain shape mutants were selected. White belly and White core were the most frequent. Selected grain mutants were classified into 16 types according to their morphological phenotypes. The overall segregation ratio was 3 : 1, controlled by one gene. Specially, SM-17 and SM-20 displayed segregation ratio of 9 : 7 and 1 : 15 respectively. Grain mutants showed generally earlier heading dates, shorter culm length and ear length than the parent. Grain length, grain width, and 1,000 grain weight were also mostly shorter and lower than the parent. In SEM analysis, each mutant type showed unique starch particle size and starch accumulation pattern. The density of polygonal cells and small inner corpuscles depending on amylose content decreased as following order - Waxy>Dull>Parent >White core. In SDS-PAGE analysis, SM-22 of Opaque group and SM-34 of Giant embryo group showed high glutelin polypeptide concentration. SM-23 of Floury group, SM-26 of Shrunken group, and SM-31 of Sugary group showed low concentration of total protein with variations in bands over 55kDa.

The present study was carried out to assess the genetic diversity, population structure and linkage disequilibrium in Korea. In model-based population, Korean rice germplasm were classified into four subpopulaton designated as indica cultivated, japonica cultivated, indica weedy, and japonica weedy were identified. Pair-wise estimates of FST indicated a different degree of differentiation between the four model-based populations with values ranging from 0.073 (between japonica cultivated and japonica weedy) and 0.474 (between japonica weedy and indica weedy). The indica weedy population appeared to be highly differentiated as compared to other populations. The indica cultivated have the highest gene diversity (0.58), followed by japonica cultivated (0.50), japonica weedy (0.42) and indica weedy (0.35). The total number of specific alleles in indica weedy and japonica weedy populations was 39 alleles (23 markers) and 55 alleles (22 markers), respectively. An average of LD (r2) value of indica weedy and japonica weedy type was higher than two other populations, both in inter- and intra-chromosome, indicating the possible reproductive and geographical isolations of sub-populations in cultivated rice fields.

The present study reports isolation and characterization of ten polymorphic SSR markers developed from common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench). These SSR markers produced a total of 59 alleles across 41 common buckwheat accessions with an average of 5.9 alleles per locus. Values for observed (HO) and expected (HE) heterozygosities ranged from 0.071 to 0.924 (mean=0.53) and from 0.073 to 0.902 (mean=0.412), respectively. At significance threshold (P<0.05), seven loci deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), whereas significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) values were observed between 5 pairs of loci. These markers are currently being used for programming of the genetic conservation and classification of common buckwheat germplasm collection.

There are about 16 species included in Fagopyrum (Polygonaceae) genus and some of them have been found recently and named. Fagopyrum genus is generally divided into two major groups: cymosum and urophyllum group. This study is to analyze the genetic diversity of Fagopyrum genus, to compare with the phylogeny result of Fagopyrim using previous analysis results, and to provide the information of each species specific marker by executing the cross-amplification on 3 species and 2 sub-species among cymosum group and 5 species among urophyllum using 136 SSR markers newly developed from common buckwheat. Cluster analysis using UPGMA showed two main clusters, each of the cymosum and urophyllum group. This result agree well with the previous findings on species relationships in Fagopyrum using different method approachs. In cross species amplification, our results revealed significant transferability of F. esculentum microsatellites to the 4 cymosum species (96.3% in F. esculentum ssp. Ancestral, 61.0% in F. tataricum ssp. tataricum, 36.0% in F. tataricum ssp. potanini, 97.1% in F. homotropicum). However, the percentage of 136 SSR markers were amplified in the urophyllum species (50.7% in F. urophyllum, 50% in F. lineare, 60.3% in F. leptopodum, 66.9% in F. capillatum, 66.2% in F. gracilipes) was lower than cymosum species, except F. tataricum. In addition, we identified 61 species specific markers among each species. These results demonstrate wide potential applicabilityof these markers for the study of inter-specific genetic diversity as well as evolutionary relationships among cultivated and wild buckwheat.

Pod shape of twenty soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) genotypes was evaluated quantitatively by image analysis using elliptic Fourier descriptors and their principal components. The closed contour of each pod projection was extracted, and 80 elliptic Fourier coefficients were calculated for each contour. The Fourier coefficients were standardized so that they were invariant of size, rotation, shift, and chain code starting point. Then, the principal components on the standardized Fourier coefficients were evaluated. The cumulative contribution at the fifth principal component was higher than 95~% , indicating that the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth principal components represented the aspect ratio of the pod, the location of the pod centroid, the sharpness of the two pod tips and the roundness of the base in the pod contour, respectively. Analysis of variance revealed significant genotypic differences in these principal components and seed number per pod. As the principal components for pod shape varied continuously, pod shape might be controlled by polygenes. It was concluded that principal component scores based on elliptic Fourier descriptors yield seemed to be useful in quantitative parameters not only for evaluating soybean pod shape in a soybean breeding program but also for describing pod shape for evaluating soybean germplasm.

Genetic background and phylogenetic relationships among 20 Korean wheat cultivars were assessed using microsatellites after amplifying with 13 SSR primer pairs. Average allele number per primer pair was 3.36. Genetic similarities for every pair of cultivars ranged from 0.42 to 0.97, with 0.69 of overall average. Korean cultivars were divided into two major groups based on microsatellite DNA polymorphisms. Group I consisted of relatively old cultivars developed until 1970s, and group II contained the recent cultivars developed during 1980s and 1990s. Amongst old elite cultivars/lines, ‘Yukseung 3’, ‘Norin 12’ and ‘Norin 72’ contributed most to the genetic background of cultivars belonging to group I, and ‘Norin 4’, ‘Norin 12’, ‘Norin 43’ and ‘Norin 72’ to group II, respectively. The phylogenetic relationship of Korean wheat cultivars was in accordance with the genealogical data of each cultivar. The genetic background of each cultivar was assessed from the point of breeding and germplasm management such as variety identification and duplicated accessions for assisting in developing a system for the registration of new variety based on the molecular characterization in future.

Allium is one of the largest genera, which has more than 700 species. PCR by URP (universal rice primer) primers was carried out to get phylogenetic information on 26 species, 62 accessions of subgenus Rhizirideum. The accessions were divided into seven groups at 0.76 similarity level. A. tuberosum (Chinese chives) and A. ramosum represented high similarity of 0.91. A. montanum, A. nutans, A. senescens, A. libani, A. odorum, A. austrosibiricum, and A. narcissiflorium grouped at 0.80 similarity. Some of the wild species, such as A. prostratum, A. polyrhizum, A. odorum, and A. mongolicum, showed different band patterns according to polyploidy, occurrence of B-chromosome, collection site, and origin.