SUMMARY: Despite extensive studies on cultivated rice, the population structure and genetic diversity of the indica photoperiod- and thermo-sensitive genic male sterility (P/TGMS) lines in China remains unclear. Using 48 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, we genotyped a panel of 208 indica P/TGMS lines and confirmed three subgroups, named indica-I, indica-II and indica-III, in indica P/TGMS lines. Further diversity analysis indicated indica-II had the highest genetic diversity. The genetic differentiation between indica-II and indica-III was demonstrated as the largest among the three subgroups. Moreover, indica/japonica component identification was detected that five P/TGMS lines possess indica components less than 0.900. These results improve our knowledge on the genetic background for P/TGMS lines in China and will be beneficial for hybrid rice breeding programs.
