Effects of Colchicine on the Morphology, Yield Components and Correlation of the M2 Variant Population of Rd.43 Rice Varieties

Background: The initial objective of the RD.43 rice project was to induce polyploid rice to improve yield components and tolerance to adverse environmental conditions. During the study, several RD.43 variant rice plants emerged. These plants presented several interesting traits. Methods: The working group collected M1 RD.43 variant rice plants (M2 variant rice populations) to study their morphology, yield components and trait correlation. The objective of this study was to examine the morphology, stomata, yield components and correlations between different traits of M2 RD.43 variant rice populations. Result: This study revealed that M2 RD.43 variant rice populations had improved height, number of leaves, leaf width, leaf length, leaf thickness, first shoot diameter, number of shoots and SPAD value compared to the mother plants. Certain M2 RD.43 variant rice populations have higher yield components (number of panicles, total number of seeds, number of full seeds, seed weight, seed width and seed length) than the mother plants. A research found that variant plants have longer stomata than mother plants. Correlation analysis revealed that the number of shoots per plant increased panicles, shriveled seeds, seeds with tails, total number of seeds, number of leaves and leaf length, while full seeds, full seed weight, percentage of pollination and stomatal density decreased.