Relationship Between the First Base of the Donor Splice Site of Waxy Gene Intron 1 and Amylose Content in Yunnan Indigenous Rice Varieties

There exists a single nucleotide polymorphism, G or T, at the first base of the donor splice site of waxy gene intron 1 in rice. In order to study the relationship between the first base of the donor splice site of waxy gene intron 1 and amylose content in rice, the one-step PCR method was used to determine whether it is G or T in 220 Yunnan indigenous rice varieties from 14 districts, 55 towns/counties of Yunnan Province, and 101 varieties of which were validated by the PCR-Acc I method. According to the G/T polymorphism, 164 rice varieties showed GG-genotype, while the other 56 fell into TT-genotype, accounting for 74.5% and 25.5% of all the test varieties, respectively. When all the rice varieties were divided into indica and japonica subspecies, it was found that 80.5% of indica rice and 67.0% of japonica rice belonged to GG-genotype. The rice varieties with GG-genotype had significantly higher amylose content (18.95% on average) than those with TT-genotype (all below 16%), but 33 rice varieties with GG-genotype still had low amylose content ranging from 3.91% to 15.93%, and most of them came from the Dai minority area in the Southwest of Yunnan Province. However, there was no significant difference in the mean amylose content of the same GG or TT genotypes between indica and japonica rice, suggesting that different genetic backgrounds, indica or japonica, had no effect on amylose content. The coefficient of correlation between the genotype and amylose content was 0.733 (P<0.01).