Evaluation of rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes based on some morphophysiological and biochemical indices

Rice is one of the most important food crop which is the staple food for more than half of the world population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical and chemical properties such as plant height, panicle length, number of effective tillers, total number of grains, number of filled grains, number of unfilled grains, 1000-grain weight, biological yield, economic yield, harvest index, chlorophyll index, growth period, total Phenol (TP), antioxidant capacity based on 2,2-Diphenyl-1-Picryl Hydrazil (DPPH) with 30 rice genotypes in a randomized complete block design in the experimental field of Amol Rice Research Institute. Results showed that Amol 1 and Bijar rice varieties had significantly higher antioxidant activities and total phenolic than the other samples examined in this study, respectively. The highest total number of grains, number of filled grains and 1000-grain weight were observed in genotype IR56. The genotypes were grouped into five clusters based on agronomic traits using UPGMA method. The highest mean of yield was related to the fourth cluster and the lowest of this attribute was related to the fifth cluster. Principal components analysis (PCA) explained 79.01% of variation and economic yield, total number of grains, and number of filled grains played the main Experimental Field role. Two principal components accounted for 43% of the raw data of the yield-related traits. The results of this research indicated that use of economic yield, total number of grains, and number of filled grains could be applied as a breeding strategy to obtain high yield rice cultivars.