Morphological and molecular traits and accumulation of grain protein in rice varieties from Maranhão, Brazil

Rice grain have low protein content but they present glutelin, a protein of higher nutritional quality than proteins of other cereal crops. The objective of this work was to characterize, by morphological and molecular markers, some land races from Maranhão State, Brazil, with high protein content (over 10%) and tolerance to Al3+ and nutritional stress. The 33 varieties under study were fit in five groups based on morphology, and in four groups when RAPD markers were used. These two groupings are not coincident as far as grain protein content are concerned. High grain protein plants were found randomly all over the groups. However, highest proteins contents are associated with plants with the lowest length/width ratio.