Short Research

Morpho-genetic Characterization of Traditional Aromatic Tulaipanji Rice of North Bengal, India

Mrityunjay Ghosh, G. Mondal, B. Das and T. K. Ghose

  • Page No:  374 - 378
  • Published online: 07 Jun 2018
  • DOI : HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.23910/IJBSM/2018.9.3.1846i

  • Abstract
  •  mghoshbckv@rediffmail.com

Tulaipanji is a non-Basmati type aromatic rice landrace of old alluvial region of North Bengal in eastern part of.India, which is presently cultivated in about 7,000 ha. land with production of  14,000–15,000 tonnes paddy every year. With a view to develop the phenotypic and genetic database of the unique variety, its agro-morphological characterization was done at ‘C’ Block Farm, B.C.K.V., Kalyani, West Bengal during kharif (wet) season of 2011, 2012 and 2013 following the DUS test guidelines of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPV&FRA). The variety had late heading (110-115 days) and late maturity (140–150 days), which produced long statured plants (125-135 cm height) with no anthocyanin colouration on leaf blade, sheath, nodes and internodes. The flower was bi-sexual including six yellow coloured anthers, and an ovary with white or yellowish-white feathery stigma. The lemma and palea were straw in colour with long awns (mean length 17.3 mm), and the grains were short in length (7.5 mm) with low test weight (15.6 g). The kernels were medium-slender (length 5.27 mm and width 1.91 mm) in shape and white in colour, which had low amylose content (17.2%), medium gelatinization temperature (alkali value 4.3) and medium aroma. 23 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used for DNA amplification profile to develop molecular base-pair length database of Tulaipanji rice against non-aromatic international check variety IR 36 in the study. Among them, one marker (RM 182) recorded similar molecular weights for both the varieties, while two markers (RM 207 and RM 339) made greater genetic distances between Tulaipanji and IR 36 (75.82 vs. 128.48 bp and 182.76 vs. 143.09 bp, respectively).

Keywords :   Aromatic rice, grain quality, morpho-agronomic traits, SSR polymorphism

  • Introduction

    The state of West Bengal is known as a land of thousands of folk varieties including about 40 non-Basmati type scented rice varieties for a long period. Among them, Tulaipanji rice has long been documented in the stories, doggerels, folk literatures, etc. due to its unique quality features and importance in agro-social system in old alluvial districts of North Bengal. The name of Tulaipanji was probably originated from the ‘Tulai’ river of the region or soft-textured, white-coloured rice with resemblance of white cotton (tula in Bengali)-like clouds (Ghosh, 2010). The earliest record of Tulaipanji rice cultivation was found in two district gazetteers (Hunter, 1876a and 1876b) of North Bengal. At present, it is cultivated in about 7,000 ha. land comprising 6,000 ha. in Uttar Dinajpur and 1,000 ha. in Dakshin Dinajpur district, with a production of 14,000–15,000 tonnes paddy every year (Ghosh, 2014). Farmers in native areas cultivate Tulaipanji rice following traditional practices intermixed with a few modern technologies in recent times during kharif (wet) season. It is very popular in domestic market for preparation of scented table rice, polao and biryani, payash (desert), pistak or pitha (home-made cake), chira (flattened rice), etc. during social functions and religious festivals in the region for a long period. Based on a proposal submitted by the RKVY Project on ‘Bengal Aromatic Rice’ of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal; the Standing Committee on Commerce, Parliament of India recommended the export of Tulaipanji rice during 2011 (Rajya Sabha, 2011). The medium-grained variety having pleasant aroma is much potential for large-scale marketing and international trade especially in the countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, U.K., Brazil, etc.

    Although the switch-over to high-yielding rice varieties with the spread of modern agriculture has posed a great threat to the security of the age-old practice of growing indigenous varieties during last four decades in the state, but Tulaipanji rice is still cultivated by the traditional farmers mainly due to its unique quality features and special uses in social life system. In the present-day agricultural system, it is necessary to register the landraces as farmers’ varieties under Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPV&FRA), 2001, which may also strengthen the right of the farming community to conserve and cultivate for production-based marketing as well as to protect the variety against counterfeit ones and/or aggressiveness of multi-national corporate seed sectors at national and global levels. Thus, agro-morphological, physico-chemical and molecular characterization of Tulaipanji rice needs to be done as legal evidence of DUS (distinctiveness, uniformity and stability), and molecular characterization to find out genetic distances and/or avoid duplication in rice germplasm conservation system.


  • Materials and Methods

    2.1.  DUS testing and determination of grain quality The seeds of Tulaipanji rice was collected from Regional Research Station, Old Alluvial Zone, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Majhian, Dakshin Dinajpur, West Bengal, India (Plate 1). Twenty five days old seedlings of Tulaipanji


    rice @ single hill-1 were transplanted in an open puddled field with five replications at ‘C’ Block Farm (22°59´N, 88º27´E and 9.75 m above mean sea level) of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India during kharif (wet) season of 2011, 2012 and 2013. Each experimental unit consisted of 6-metre row length comprising 30 rows including row to row distance of 30 cm and plant to plant distance of 20 cm. Standard agronomic practices were adopted in trial plots during the course of investigation. The DUS descriptors following ‘DUS Test Guidelines for Rice’ of PPV&FRA, Government of India (www.plantauthority.gov.in) were used to define the morphological and related characteristics of Tulaipanji rice. Grain quality parameters like size and shape of grain and kernel, amylose content (Juliano, 1971), gelatinization temperature (Little et al., 1958) and aroma (Nagraju et al., 1991) were determined at Aromatic Rice Laboratory, Department of Agronomy, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India.

    2.2.  Molecular characterization by SSR markers

    The molecular characterization of Tulaipanji rice was done at the Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Kolkata, West Bengal during 2006–2007. 3-day old rice seedlings of Tulaipanji rice along with international non-aromatic check (IR 36) were used for isolation of genomic DNA following the method of Walbot (1988). DNA amplification was carried out by standard PCR method with 23 pairs of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in a Peltier Thermal Cycler (MJ Research, USA). The PCR products were resolved by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) following the protocol given by Sambrook et al. (1989). The length of the amplified DNA bands (SSR alleles) from two rice genotypes was determined with the reference of 100 bp DNA ladders (SibEnzyme Ltd., Russia) by the Molecular Analyst software (BioRad, USA).

    The different alleles amplified from the genomic DNA of Tulaipanji rice along with the check were identified on the basis of their length or base pairs (bp) for making genetic characterization of Tulaipanji rice in the study.


  • Results and Discussion

    3.1.  Agro-morphological characteristics and grain quality

    Tulaipanji rice was usually adaptable to rainfed medium land in old gangetic alluvium  region of North Bengal. The characteristics of Tulaipanji rice following ‘DUS Test Guidelines for Rice’ of PPV&FRA are described in Table 1.

    Plant: Tulaipanji rice belonged to long-duration type with late heading (scale 7, 113 days) and late maturity (scale 7, 146 days) (Plate 2).

    Stem: It had long statured plant with average stem length of 118.0 cm excluding panicle. The thickness of stem was medium (scale 5) with mean diameter of 0.45 cm. Anthocyanin colouration was absent on nodes and internodes. The attitude of the culm could be categorised as semi-erect (scale 3) at booting stage.

    Leaf: The variety produced long, narrow and green leaves. The colour of basal leaf sheath was green (scale 1), while the intensity of green colour of the leaf was light (scale 3) without any anthocyanin colouration. The average length and width of leaf blade were noted as 40.8 mm and 7.0 mm, respectively. The split-type (scale 3) ligule and sickle-shaped auricle at leaf base were found in the plant. The attitude of the flag leaf was semi-erect (scale 3) at early observation and horizontal (scale 5) at late observation.

    Inflorescence: The length of panicle of Tulaipanji rice was categorized as medium (scale 5, 27.2 cm) with the curvature of the main axis as deflexed (scale 5). The plant produced very few (scale 3, mean 8.3) well-exerted panicles in the field. The colour of the lemma and palea was green at anthesis, which turned to straw (scale 1) or golden-yellow at ripening stage.

    Flower: The variety produced bi-sexual flowers including six


    yellow coloured anthers, and an ovary with white or yellowish-white feathery stigma.

    Grain: The grains of Tulaipanji rice were short in size (mean length 7.5 mm and width 2.4 mm), with yellowish-brown coloured long awns (mean length 17.3 mm) (Plate 3). The weight of 1000 fully-developed grains was low (15.6 g).


    The colour of lemma and palea was straw (scale 1), and that of sterile lemma was straw (scale 1).

    The kernels were medium-slender in shape (length 5.27 mm and width 1.91 mm) and white in colour (Plate 4), which had low amylose content (17.2%), medium gelatinization temperature (alkali value 4.3) and medium aroma.


    3.2.  DNA amplification profile and molecular weight

    23 SSR markers used in the study were selected from chromosome 2, 3, 7 and 8 because two important traits of scented rice, aroma (Ahn et al., 1992) and cooked kernel elongation ratio (Ahn et al., 1993) were mapped earlier using RFLP markers. The SSR markers revealed clear and consistent amplification profile in the investigation, which developed the molecular base-pair length database of Tulaipanji rice against the non-aromatic international check variety IR 36 because of availability of sequence-based estimate of allele size of the later reference variety (Table 2). Among 23 markers used, one marker (RM 182) recorded similar molecular weights for both the varieties, while 17 markers showed lower bp values for Tulaipanji rice compared to the check variety and rest five primers (RM 149, RM 250, RM 284, RM 339 and RM569) indicated greater molecular weights of the tested variety than the check. Perusal of molecular weight database revealed that two markers (RM 207 and RM 339) made greater genetic distances between Tulaipanji and IR 36 varieties (75.82 vs. 128.48 bp and 182.76 vs. 143.09 bp, respectively) compared to other markers  in the investigation.


  • Conclusion

    Tulaipanji, a traditional aromatic rice variety of North Bengal, India had late maturity (140–150 days) and the plants were long statured (125–135 cm height) with no anthocyanin colouration on leaf blade, sheath, nodes and internodes. The colour of lemma and palea of grain was straw and the grains were medium in length (7.5 mm) with low test weight (15.6 g). The kernels were medium slender (length 5.27 mm and width 1.91 mm) in shape and white in colour, which had low amylose content (17.2%), medium gelatinization temperature (alkali value 4.3) and medium aroma. Based on molecular base-pair length database developed by 23 SSR markers, two (RM 207 and RM 339) made greater genetic distances between Tulaipanji and IR 36 in the investigation.


  • Acknowledgement

    We are thankful to Koushik Roy, Mahesh, S.S., Kitab Ali Mondal for their help and co-operation during the field and laboratory programme at B.C.K.V., Nadia. The technical and financial assistance from RKVY Project on ‘Bengal Aromatic Rice’ sanctioned by the Department of Agriculture, Government of West Bengal are acknowledged.


  • Reference
  • Ahn, S.N., Bollich, C.N., Tanksley, S.D., 1992. RFLP tagging of a gene for aroma in rice. Applied Genetics 84, 825–828.

    Ahn, S.N., Bollich, C.N., McClung, A.N., Tanksley, S.D., 1993. RFLP analysis of genomic regions associated with cooked kernel elongation in rice. Theoritical Applied Genetics 87, 27–32.

    Ghosh, B., 2010. Tulaipanji (in Bengali), Royal Computer, Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, India.

    Ghosh, M., 2014. Registration for Geographical Indication: Status Paper on Tulaipanji, Aromatic Rice of West Bengal. Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India.

    Hunter, W.W., 1876a. A Statistical Account of Bengal: Districts of Maldah, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Vol. VII, Trubner & Co., London.

    Hunter, W.W., 1876b. A Statistical Account of Bengal: Districts of Darjiling and Jalpaiguri, and State of Kuch Behar, Vol. X, Trubner & Co., London.

    Juliano, B.O., 1971. A simplified assay for milled rice amylose. Cereal Science Today, 16, 334–340.

    Little, R.R., Hidder, G.B., Dawson, E.H., 1958. Differential effect of dilute alkali on 25 varieties of milled white rice. Cereal Chemistry, 35, 111–126.

    Nagaraju, M., Mohanty, K.K., Chaudhury, D., Gangadharan, C., 1991. A simple screening technique to detect scent in rice. Oryza, 28, 109–110.

    Rajya Sabha, 2011. 98th Report on Export of foodgrains: Non-Basmati rice and wheat, Parliament of India, New Delhi, India.

    Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F., Maniatis, T., 1989. Molecular cloning: A laboratory manual, 2nd ed. Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory Press, New York, U.S.A.

    Walbot, V., 1988. Preparation of DNA from single rice seedling. Rice Genetics Newsletter 5, 149–151.

    www.plantauthority.gov.in, 2007. Guidelines for the Conduct of Test for Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability on Rice (Oryza Sativa L.).


Cite

1.
Ghosh M, Mondal G, Das B, Ghose TK. Morpho-genetic Characterization of Traditional Aromatic Tulaipanji Rice of North Bengal, India IJBSM [Internet]. 07Jun.2018[cited 8Feb.2022];9(1):374-378. Available from: http://www.pphouse.org/ijbsm-article-details.php?article=1149

People also read

Research Article

The Role of Parkland for Conservation of Useful Plant Species Diversity in Arba Minch, Southern Ethiopia

Mulugeta Kebebew

Parkland, paradise lodge, diversity, useful plant, Ethiopia

Published Online : 13 May 2019

Review Article

Astrologically Designed Medicinal Gardens of India

Maneesha S. R., P. Vidula, V. A. Ubarhande and E. B. Chakurkar

Vedic astrology, astral garden, celestial garden, zodiac garden

Published Online : 14 Apr 2021