Full Length Research Article

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Genetic Diversity and Screening of Rice Germplasm Lines against Grain Discoloration Disease

Farman Ahmad Chaudhry¹, Muhammad Ashfaq²*, Ambar Javed², Muhammad Ali², Abdul Rasheed², Muhammad Jamil², Adnan Shakir²

Adv. life sci., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 186-192, June 2023
*^- Corresponding Author: Muhammad Ashfaq (ashfaq.iags@pu.edu.pk)
Authors' Affiliations

Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
References 

Abstract

Background: The research was conducted to screen out the diverse rice germplasm lines against grain discoloration disease by using 10 SSR primer pairs and on the basis of various morphological characters to evaluate the diversity of the genotypes at Faculty of Agricultural sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore. 

Methods: Seed morphological traits were measured and recorded under Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) experiment. DNA extraction and PCR analysis was done to measure the genotypic characteristics of rice. Genotypic and phenotypic variability was measured by using ANOVA and correlation. Microsatellite markers, also called simple sequence repeats (SSR) were used for screening and to check the genetic diversity of rice.

Results: The PIC values ranged from 0.204 of RM-07 to 0.640 of primer RM-22 along with other genetic characters i.e., number of alleles, percentage of polymorphism chromosomal location etc. The higher PIC (polymorphism information content) value showed the greatest genetic diversity among the genotypes. The polymorphic SSRs produced 3-5 alleles with an average unit of 3.3. The PIC values ranged from 0.204 to 0.640 with an average mean of 0.51. All the genotypes showed significant differences in all the studied traits which gave the significant results and non-significant results at significance level of p<0.05= *; p<0.01=** respectively.  A significant association was also observed between seed length with length width ratio, 1000 grain weight (r= 0.1251*; r= 0.1922**) and seed thickness with 1000 grain weight (r=0.1205*). All these traits showed higher variations for different rice lines.

Conclusions:  From the study it was concluded that some rice found to be highly resistant (Blue Nile, IR 50, Line 9 (4×15) and Line 12 (4×23) against grain discoloration that could be more useful for the production new rice lines with diverse genetic characteristics.

Keywords: Oryza sativa; DNA; SSR; Germplasm; Traits; Diversity    

Retraction Note

24 Sept 2025: The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article due to the below mentioned scientific deficiencies revealed by an internal audit.

1. This is the most severe flaw in the paper. The Discussion section contains a paragraph reporting Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) values for the SSR primers that completely contradicts the data presented in Table 4. For example:
A. The Discussion claims the PIC range is "RM 109 0.18 to RM 07 0.75". Table 4 shows the actual range is from RM07 (0.204) to RM22 (0.640), with the value for RM109 being 0.550.
B. The Discussion claims the lowest PIC values for RM449 and RM84 were "0.04". Table 4 shows the actual values are 0.430 and 0.633, respectively.
C. Every single PIC value reported in this paragraph of the discussion is incorrect and inconsistent with the paper's own results table, suggesting the text may have been copied from a different, unrelated study.

2. The main text in the "Variance and correlation analysis" section states, "All the genotypes showed significant differences in all the studied traits (Table 2)." This is directly contradicted by Table 2 itself, which clearly marks two of the five traits, Seed Width (SW) and Length/Width ratio (L/W), as "NS" (Non-significant).

3. In the "Disease incidence" section, the rice variety IAGS-23 is listed as being in the highest resistance category (score 0-1) and simultaneously in a much lower resistance category (score 2-3). A variety cannot have two different resistance ratings at the same time.

The authors have not responded to correspondence regarding this retraction.