Exploiting genetic diversity to develop drought tolerant rice (Oryza sative L.) in Tanzania

To date, drought is one of the abiotic stresses severely affecting the grain yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.) globally and specifically in Tanzania. The discovery of new drought-tolerant rice cultivars is necessary to address rapidly dwindling water resources and a rapidly growing population. Although the main goal of this PhD study is to study the genetic diversity of rice germplasm using genome-wide association study (GWAS) to develop drought-tolerant rice in Tanzania, the project will be implemented under four work packages (WPs). The first WP will gather detailed information from farmers on diverse rice germplasm that behaves well under drought conditions. The second WP deals with the phenotypic study of 250 rice genotypes derived from different sources, both under well-watered and drought-stress conditions. The third WP applies the GWAS for genotyping and develop single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) diversity data linked to the drought tolerance candidate genes. Lastly, the fourth WP will utilize the information from WP 2 & 3 to hybridize the drought-susceptible rice variety (SARO 5) and the drought-tolerant lines from GWAS study to develop drought-tolerant candidate lines with improved grain yield under drought conditions. In general, special techniques for morpho-physiological characterization and molecular work such as DNA isolation, PCR, SNP, and GWAS will be applied. This will provide useful information on donor plant and provide a global diversity analysis along with a specific analysis of known candidate genes, hence developing drought-tolerant rice in Tanzania.