_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: v.roja@angrau.ac.in; J. Adv. Biol. Biotechnol., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 611-631, 2024 Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology Volume 27, Issue 5, Page 611-631, 2024; Article no.JABB.115752 ISSN: 2394-1081 Molecular and Morphological Profiling of Rice Cultivars Using Hypervariable Microsatellite Markers and DUS Descriptors Roja Veeraghattapu a* , Tushara Modugu b , Krishnaveni Badugu b , Pranaya Jallu a , Sudhamani Kalluru a and Rani Chapara a a Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lam, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. b Agricultural Research Station, Bapatla, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh, India. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration among all authors. Authors RV, TM and BK designed and conceived the experiment. Authors RV and TM performed the experiments. Authors PJ, SK and RC analyzed the data. Author RV wrote the manuscript. Authors RV and BK critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/JABB/2024/v27i5823 Open Peer Review History: This journal follows the Advanced Open Peer Review policy. Identity of the Reviewers, Editor(s) and additional Reviewers, peer review comments, different versions of the manuscript, comments of the editors, etc are available here: https://www.sdiarticle5.com/review-history/115752 Received: 13/02/2024 Accepted: 17/04/2024 Published: 22/04/2024 ABSTRACT Identification and protection of varieties is one of the most important tasks in the plant breeding programme. As the number of new varieties increasing year by year, there is a need to protect and maintain the purity of the varieties. DNA fingerprinting studies allows us to identify the plant varieties with high precision as it is not influenced by environment and other factors. In this context, Original Research Article