Qualitative Assessment of Phenotypical Diversity of

East Asian Rice Plants

Atienza, Zharyne Mae S., Bio, Jean Ann M., Caasi, Irene A.

BS Biology, First Year Students, Batangas State University

Copyright @ 2019 Atienza et al. This is an open access article distributed under
Batangas State University, which permits unristricted use, distribution, and reproduction.

Abstract of the Study

Rice is one of the most important crops as it serves as a primary source of food
in Asian Countries. Weedy rice is a weed accompanying rice and is widely distributed in
rice-planting areas all over the world and is one of the major competitor of cultivated
rice species as it has extreme mechanisms that can outgrowth cultivated species due to
its resistance to many variables. This study shows the phenotypic diversity of weedy rice
populations in East Asia and to explore its relationship to other rice plant groups. Weedy
rice has the highest diversity among all groups in East Asia. It is recommendable to have
effective methodologies and control for weedy rice plants growth to prevent the spread of
these plant species all over the East Asia that affects the rice production.

Introduction

Rice belongs to the genus Oryza and
a member of family Poaceae. Asian
civilization was built in rice and is the
world’s most important crop as it is the
primary source of food for more than half of
the world’s population (Khush, 1997). Rice
could be taken in many parts of the world
due to its versatility. It may be able to live
on the desert conditions, wetlands, or deltas
in the flooded rice plains. One of the top
world’s producers of rice is East Asia,
particularly in China. There are wild, weedy
and domesticated races of most crop plants.
The wild races can survive without man, the
weedy ones survive because of man (and in
spite of his efforts to get rid of them) and the
domesticated races demand care and
cultivation for survival (Harlan, 1976).
Despite of wild rice name, it is not
rice at all. Wild rice is a species of grass that
produces edible seeds that resembles rice.
They have tolerance to biotic and abiotic
stresses and it most important use of the
various species of wild rice is probably in
breeding programmes to improve species of
cultivated rice. Oryza rufipogon, the Asian
wild species that represent the wild ancestor
that gave rise to Asian domesticated rice,
Oryza sativa. It is also one of the most
important components of primary gene pool
on which rice breeding relies. Its red grain is
edible but some considered it as pest. Oryza
nivara is also a wild progenitor of cultivated
rice Oryza sativa.
Weedy rice, in general includes
all the species of genus Oryza which has
similar characteristics with cultivated difference between them are reflected in
rice. Weedy rice populations have been a wide range of morphological and
reported in many rice-growing areas in physiological traits.
the world where the crop is directly
After rice cultivation expanded,
seeded (Parker and Dean, 1976; Ferrero
this process has originated a wide range
and Finassi, 1995). Weedy rice was
of diversity that can be regarded as a
commonly found in rice fields of China
valuable resource for crop improvement.
(Jiang et al., 1985). During the past
Genetic diversity is a natural source for
several decades, weedy rice was
rice breeding to meet current food
effectively managed and became
demands. Understanding population
negligible in Chinese rice agriculture
structure, genome variation, and
systems because of the manual
phenotypic selection of rice are crucial
transplanting technology that was
achievements to facilitate desired crop
adopted predominantly in rice
varieties for future needs. In order to
cultivation, in addition to intensive
successfully meet the future food
inputs of human labour for weed control
requirements, it is necessary to conduct
(Zhang, 2000). However, weedy rice re-
research about these species and
emerged in different rice planting places
addresses the issue of genetic
in China and spread rapidly
conservation of what remains the genetic
accompanied with less weed
diversity of important crop plant.
management. It commonly causes yield
reduction and affects the quality of rice Materials and Methods

grains and highly variable and emerge to 1. Description of the Study. The
be a median between wild and cultivated study is an analysis of
rice. (Hoagland and Paul, 1978). phenotypic diversity of Rice

Rice cultivation is an intricate Plants in East Asia wherein a

activity that requires a series of total of nine species of Rice

processes to achieve the expected plants, two (2) are Wild Species,

finished product. Crop domestication are two (2) are Weedy Species and

long-term selection experiments that five (5) are Cultivated Species.

have greatly advanced in human China is the country in East Asia

civilization. Oryza sativa L. ranks one as included in the study. Out of 21

the most important domesticated plants, 8 plants do not have data

cultivation of rice in history. And it is and are excluded from the study

the most important staple food crop. and the remaining 13 plants

Cultivated rice Oryza sativa L. is undergo data analysis.

considered to have been domesticated 2. Data Collection. The

from wild rice Oryza rifupogon that the categorizations of the

 morphological features of the For the analysis of the
species are based from the phenotypic characteristics of weedy rice
required features needed to be populations and the comparison to
compared throughout the study. cultivated and wild rice, samples of rice
The data were provided by Miss varieties were assembled and included in
Rubilyn Mijan- Infante from her the analysis.
former study.
Variety of Rice plant species can
3. Data Analysis. Phenotypic
be found in China. Shown in Table 1.1 is
frequency distributions of the
the overall number of species in China
characters were analyzed through
that possess the morphological
the use of Shannon- Weaver
characteristics for each category. A total
Diversity Index (H’). It is used to
of 17 species can be found in China
assess the diversity of each
where in Wild Rice, 3 species were
phenotypic features of the rice.
analyzed and for Weedy Rice, 9 plants
The Shannon- Weaver diversity
were analyzed from the data provided.
Index is formulated as:
The other 5 are cultivated species. Only
H’=∑Piloge(Pi)
these species are allowed for observation
Where Pi is the proportion of
because the other 8 species don’t possess
accessions in the ith class of an
data. The following data are for Weedy
n-class character, n is the number
and Wild Rice which are actually found
of phenotypic classes of traits
in East Asia. For the observable
and then H’ was divided by its
characteristic Basal leaf sheath color
maximum value logen and
(BLSCO), the highest number of species
normalized to keep the values
that have light purple color is 6 and the
between 0 and 1. The average
lowest is purple which has only one
diversity is calculated through
species. For the observable characteristic
the use of formula 𝐻 = ∑𝐇’/𝐧; Leaf Blade Anthocyanin (Blade Antho),
where ∑H’ is the summation of the highest number of species that have
values and n is the number of this characteristic present is 5 and the
characteristics. lowest wherein it is absent has only 7.
Results and Discussion For the observable characteristic Leaf
Auricle Color (AUCO), the highest
The amount of phenotypic
number of species that have anthocyanin
diversity estimates is based on Shannon-
color is 5 and the lowest without
Weaver diversity index (H’). China is
anthocyanin which has only 7. For the
the only country in East Asia under
observable characteristic (Collar Color)
study. The following tables show the
Collco, the highest number of species
summary of the data gathered.
that have anthocyanin color is 6 and the
lowest without anthocyanin which has 6. Color (LIGCO), the highest number of
For the observable characteristic Ligule species that have anthocyanin color is 6

Table 1.1
CHARACTER CODE DESCRIPTION FREQUENCY
Wild Weedy Cultivated
Basal leaf sheath BLSCO Green 1 4 18
color Light Purple 2 4 2
Purple 0 1 0
Leaf blade BLADE ANTHO Present 1 4 0
anthocyanin Absent 2 5 20

Leaf auricle color AUCO With anthocyanin 2 3 3

No anthocyanin 1 6 16
No auricle 0 0 12

Collar color COLLCO With anthocyanin 2 4 3

No anthocyanin 1 5 17
Ligule color LIGCO With anthocyanin 2 4 2
No anthocyanin 1 5 18
Culm node NOCO Light purple 0 1 0
anthocyanin color Purple lines 1 2 0
Purple 0 1 18
Absent 2 5 2
Culm internode INCO Purple lines 1 2 1
anthocyanin color Absent 2 7 19
Lemma and palea LPCO With anthocyanin 0 0 0
anthocyanin color No anthocyanin 3 9 20
Lemma APCO_BELOW Very weak 2 0 2
anthocyanin color Weak 0 3 4
of apiculus Medium 0 0 1
Strong 0 0 1
Absent 1 6 12
Flag leaf attitude FL_ANG Semi-erect 0 2 4
Erect 1 3 16
Horizontal 0 1 0
Descending 2 2 0
Culm habit CULM_HABIT Spreading 0 0 0
Open 1 2 0
Semi-erect 2 2 1
Erect 0 4 19
Panicle attitude of PANBR_ATT Compact 0 3 3
branches Semi-compact 0 4 2
Open 3 1 2
Descending 0 0 1
Horizontal 0 1 10
Drooping 0 0 2
Panicle exsertion PAN_EXS Moderately 0 4 11
Just 0 1 2
Partly 0 1 5
Well 3 3 2
Enclosed 0 0 0
Awn presence AWNPRES Awned 3 8 5
Absent 0 0 15
Panicle shattering PAN_SHATT Very high 3 7 16
High 0 1 4
Low 0 1 0
Moderate 0 1
Leaf senescence LEAFSEN Very late 3 3 13
Late 0 5 4
Intermediate 0 1 2
Early 0 0 1
Very early 0 0 0
and the lowest without anthocyanin For the observable characteristic Awn
which has 6. Presence (AWNPRES), all eleven
species are awned and lastly for the
For the observable characteristic Culm
observable characteristic Leaf
Node Anthocyanin Color (NOCO), the
senescence (LEAFSEN), six species are
highest number of species that this
very late.
characteristic is absent which is 7 and
the lowest has purple lines which has 3. WILD RICE
For the observable characteristic Culm Character H’ HCL

Internode Anthocyanin Color (INCO), BLSCO 0.64 0.64

BLADE ANTHO 0.64 0.64
the highest number of species that this
AUCO 0.64 0.64
characteristic is absent is 12 and the COLLCO 0.64 0.64
lowest has purple lines which has 3. For LIGCO 0.64 0.64
the observable characteristic Lemma and NOCO 0.64 0.64

Palea Anthocyanin Color (LPCO), 12 INCO 0.64 0.64

LPCO 0 0
don’t have anthocyanin. For the
APCO_BELOW 0.64 0.64
observable characteristic Lemma FIL_ANG 0.64 0.64
Anthocyanin Color of Apiculus CULM_HABIT 0.64 0.64
(APCO_below), the highest number of PANBR_ATT 0 0

species that have this characteristic as PAN_EXS 0 0

PAN_SHATT 0 0
weak is 8 and the lowest is absent which
AWNPRES 0 0
is 4. For the observable characteristic LEAFSEN 0 0
Flag Leaf Attitude (FL_ANG), the Average 0.4 0.4
highest number of species that is Table 2.1
descending is 4 and the lowest is
Table 2.1 shows the Wild Rice
horizontal which has only one species.
Species Diversity Index for each
For the observable characteristic Culm
character and the diversity index for
Habit (CULM_HABIT), the highest
each character for the locations in East
number of species that is semi-erect is 6
Asia. Based on the data gathered,
and the lowest is open which has 3. For
BLSCO, BLADE ANTHO, AUCO,
the observable characteristic Panicle
COLLCO, LIGCO, NOCO, INCO,
Attitude Branches (PANBR_ATT), the
APCO_BELOW, FIL_ANG, and
characteristic with highest diversity are
CULM_HABIT are in medial diversity
open and semi-compact. For the
with a diversity index of 0.64. It is not
observable characteristic Panicle
too high and not too low since the plants
Exsertion (PAN_EXS), all six species
under study are only three. The lowest
are well. For the observable
diversity index characters with a
characteristic Panicle shattering (PAN
diversity index of 0 were
SHATT), all ten species are very high.
APCO_BELOW, PAN_EXS, the nine (9) plants examined. The
PAN_SHATT, AWNPRES, LEAFSEN. characters that have the lowest diversity
It shows no diversity in characteristics index are Lemma and palea anthocyanin
meaning that all plants exhibit the same color (LPCO) and Awn presence
characteristics. The Average diversity of (AWNPRES) with 0 diversity index.
all characters of Wild Rice Plant Species There is no difference between 9 plants
in China is 0.4 which is interpreted as in terms of these characteristics. The
low in diversity. average diversity index of Weedy Rice
Plant Species is 0. 77. It is already
WEEDY RICE
CULTIVATED RICE
Character H’ HCL
Character H’ HCL
BLSCO 0.97 0.97
BLSCO 0.33 0.33
BLADE ANTHO 0.69 0.69
BLADE ANTHO 0 0
AUCO 0.64 0.64
AUCO 0.61 0.61
COLLCO 0.69 0.69
COLLCO 0.42 0.42
LIGCO 0.64 0.64
LIGCO 0.33 0.33
NOCO 1.15 1.15
NOCO 0.33 0.33
INCO 0.53 0.53
INCO 0.39 0.39
LPCO 0 0
LPCO 0 0
APCO_BELOW 0.64 0.64
APCO_BELOW 1.16 1.16
FIL_ANG 1.32 1.32
FIL_ANG 0.5 0.5
CULM_HABIT 1.04 1.04
CULM_HABIT 0.2 0.2
PANBR_ATT 1.22 1.22
PANBR_ATT 1.47 1.47
PAN_EXS 1.22 1.22
PAN_EXS 1.14 1.14
PAN_SHATT 0.68 0.68
PAN_SHATT 0.5 0.5
AWNPRES 0 0
AWNPRES 0.56 0.56
LEAFSEN 0.94 0.94
LEAFSEN 0.98 0.98
Average 0.77 0.77
Average 0.56 0.56
Table 2.2
interpreted as high.
Table 2.2 shows the Weedy Rice
Table 2. 3
Species Diversity Index for each
character and the diversity index for Table 2.3 shows the Cultivated

each character for the locations in East Rice Species Diversity Index for each

Asia. Based on the table, there are now character. Countries are not specified in

differences on diversity for each this category. The diversity ranges from

characteristic. The diversity ranges from 0- 1.47. The characteristic with highest

0-1.32. Flag leaf attitude characteristic diversity index is Panicle attitude

(FLG_ANG) has the highest diversity branches (PANBR_ATT) with an index

index among all characteristics with an of 1.47 which is interpreted as high. The

index of 1. 32. It interprets that there is lowest diversity index, on the other

already a number of variation between hand, is Lemma and palea anthocyanin

color (LPCO) and Leaf blade Hcl is the average diversity index of
anthocyanin (BLADE ANTHO) with an each character of all countries. (China
index of 0 meaning in these is the only country in East Asia under
characteristics, all cultivated species the study.)
possess the same qualities. The average
Conclusion
index of cultivated species is 0. 56. It is
interpreted as median in diversity. The phenotypic diversity of
weedy rice in East Asia was relatively
0.9
high. The irregular distribution of
0.8
genetic diversity and genetic
0.7
differentiation among weedy rice
0.6
populations is probably associated with
0.5 Wild
several factors, such as strength of weed
0.4 Weedy
management in the regions, limited gene
Cultivated
0.3 flow among weedy populations and
0.2 introgression with different rice varieties
0.1 over time. Though there is a high
0 diversity of this rice species, it still have
Average H'
lot of similarities in comparison to wild
and cultivated rice species. The recent
Average Diversity Index of Each Species Category

Graph 1.1 changes of farming practices and

The graph shows the comparison cultivation methods with application of

of averages diversity index of the three direct seeding and seedling broadcasting

categories of Rice Plant Species in East technologies with less weed

Asia. Weedy Rice Plant Species has the management may have promoted the re-

highest average of diversity index among emergence and genetic diversification of

all species. The average diversity index weedy. As the genetic diversity of weedy

of Weedy Rice Plant Species is 0. 77. It rice populations is accompanied with

is already interpreted as high. Cultivated changes of farming practices, then the

has an average index of 0.56 which is growth of weedy rice may be left out of

interpreted as median in diversity. control and may threathen rice

However, Wild Rice Plant Species has production. It can be observed from the

average index of 0.4 which is interpreted data that the diversity of weedy rice is

as low in diversity. much more ahead than cultivated and

wild rice plants species. Thus, effective
H is the diversity index for each
methodologies and control for weedy
character calculated from the data set.
rice plants growth must be implemented
to prevent the spread of these plant
species all over the East Asia that affects
the rice production.

References:

Taxonomy of the genus Oryza

(Poaceae): historical perspective and
current status by B.R. Lu, Genetic
Resources Center, IRRI

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl
es/PMC3292271/