STM Article Repository

Rice production has been significantly hindered by frequent drought events in recent times, directly impacting food security and agricultural sustainability. In the current study, a set of 100 diverse rice accessions from 3K RG panel were evaluated for Epidermal patterning factor 2 (OsEPF2) loci which governs the stomatal density on the matured leaves by preventing excessive stomatal development. This plays an important role in drought tolerance in plants. Hence, this gene was selected for analyzing haplotype variation which revealed 27 SNPs and 59 INDELs. Seven significant non-synonymous SNPs, grouped the one hundred accessions into three haplotype groups with the allelic combination CGATGCG for H1, TTGGAAA for H2 and CGGGGCG for H3. This shows the allelic diversity of the population that can be potentially employed in breeding of rice varieties with improved drought tolerance and water use efficiency by assembling superior haplotype.