Received: 16 Mar 2020 Accepted: 05 Aug 2020 Revised: 03 Aug 2020 https://doi.org/10.37992/2020.1103.138 Vol 11(3):841-847 841 Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding Research Article SSR markers for grain iron zinc and yield-related traits polymorphic between Samba Mahsuri (BPT5204) and a wild rice Oryza rufpogon Gowthami Chandu 1 , Krishnam Raju Addanki 1 , Divya Balakrishnan 1 , Satendra K Mangrauthia 1 , P. Sudhakar 2 , A. Krishna Satya 2 and Sarla Neelamraju 1 * 1 ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR), Hyderabad, India. 2 Department of Biotechnology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India. *E-Mail: sarla_neelamraju@yahoo.com Abstract Identifcation of molecular markers revealing polymorphism among the parental lines are prerequisite for mapping QTLs and genes for desired traits. The genomic regions which contributes to the accumulation of grain iron and zinc in rice could greatly help in rice bio fortifcation programs. A BC 4 F 10 mapping population was earlier developed from the cross between an elite fne-grain Oryza sativa indica cultivar, BPT5204 and a wild progenitor specie O. rufpogon WR119. A total of 800 randomly selected SSR markers distributed on all the 12 chromosomes of rice including 50 gene specifc markers related to grain iron, zinc and yield traits were used to identify the polymorphic loci between the two genotypes. In all, 166 markers (20.75 %) showed distinct polymorphism. 149 SSR markers (19%) out of 750 SSRs and 17 out of 50 gene-specifc markers (36%) were polymorphic. The 17 polymorphic gene-specifc markers were related to gene families OsZIP, OsYSL, OsNRAMP, OsNAAT, OsFRO, OsFDH, OsGSTU and OsPDR which are involved in metal transport and homeostasis in rice. Among the markers reported to be signifcantly associated with QTLs for grain iron, zinc and yield related traits, RM517, RM81A, RM264, OsYSL-7, RM5460, RM3874 were polymorphic in this study. Key words BPT5204, wild rice, bio fortifcation, SSR markers, polymorphism, iron, zinc INTRoDuCTIoN Rice (Oryza sativa L.), one of the most important staple food across the world, is being cultivated on approximately 167 million hectares of area under varied climatic conditions in tropical and subtropical regions. It occupies 23 per cent of the total area under cereal production in the world. The annual global milled rice production in 2018 was 487.35 million tonnes (Rice stat, 2019). In rice, while the carbohydrates and zinc are present in the endosperm, the important micronutrients such as iron are largely stored in the husk, aleurone layer, and embryo, a large proportion of which are lost during the milling and polishing processes. In polished form, rice cannot serve the required amount of micronutrients. The availability of large genetic variability in micronutrient concentration in rice grains and its huge preference as a staple food by large populations made it the best candidate for bio fortifcation of food grains to enrich with crucial micronutrients (Graham et al., 1999). Eforts are being made to improve the micronutrient content in the existing cultivars with introgression of genes/QTLs responsible for their enhancement and there is a scope for increasing at least 8-10mg of Fe and Zn in rice grain. The rapid development of molecular technology provides greater opportunities to enhance the nutritive values of traditionally cultivated crops. Some wild relatives of rice were found to have higher grain Fe and Zn concentrations