Characterization of Arsenic contaminated Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) through RAPD Markers

Rice being cultivated under anaerobic condition is vulnerable to arsenite, a mobile arsenic speciation Both arsenate and arsenite are highly toxic to human body. Experiments were conducted in Nonaghata (Nadia) and De-ganga (North 24 parganas) with 40 genotypes of rice in Boro season. A few varieties have been identified with low arsenic. Simultaneously some of them were characterized at molecular level by RAPD technique. It is worth to be seen how the low grain and high grain arsenic varieties behave in RAPD fingerprinting. Fourteen out of the 18 decamer random primers showed amplification of genomic DNA in all individuals. A total of 59 fragments were scored, of these fragments, 10 (16.94%) were common to all accessions, 49 (83.06%) were polymorphic and shared by at least eight accessions. It is interesting to mention that the genotypes Azucena and Lemont have already been identified as low grain arsenic genotypes and occupied a distinct different cluster for all primers at the molecular level also. More research is needed in arsenic research in crop plants in different agro climatic situation to have a meaningful and stable conclusion so that the farmers and also the people of West Bengal do not suffer from arsenic hazards at least from the consumption of rice.