Drought Tolerant near Isogenic Lines (NILs) of Pusa 44 Developed through Marker Assisted Introgression of <i>qDTY2.1</i> and <i>qDTY3.1</i> Enhances Yield under Reproductive Stage Drought Stress
Priyanka Dwivedi,
Naleeni Ramawat,
Gaurav Dhawan,
Subbaiyan Gopala Krishnan,
Kunnummal Kurungara Vinod,
Madan Pal Singh,
Mariappan Nagarajan,
Prolay Kumar Bhowmick,
Nimai Prasad Mandal,
Puvvada Perraju,
Haritha Bollinedi,
Ranjith Kumar Ellur,
Ashok Kumar Singh
Affiliations
Priyanka Dwivedi
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Naleeni Ramawat
Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture (AIOA), Amity University, Noida 201303, Uttar Pradesh, India
Gaurav Dhawan
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Subbaiyan Gopala Krishnan
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Kunnummal Kurungara Vinod
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Madan Pal Singh
Division of Plant Physiology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Mariappan Nagarajan
Rice Breeding and Genetics Research Centre, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Aduthurai 612 101, Tamil Nadu, India
Prolay Kumar Bhowmick
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Nimai Prasad Mandal
Central Rainfed Upland Rice Research Station, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Post Box 48, Hazaribagh 825 301, Jharkhand, India
Puvvada Perraju
College of Agriculture, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Rewa 486 004, Madhya Pradesh, India
Haritha Bollinedi
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Ranjith Kumar Ellur
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Ashok Kumar Singh
Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Reproductive stage drought stress (RSDS) is detrimental for rice, which affects its productivity as well as grain quality. In the present study, we introgressed two major quantitative trait loci (QTLs), namely, qDTY2.1 and qDTY3.1, governing RSDS tolerance in a popular high yielding non-aromatic rice cultivar, Pusa 44, through marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB). Pusa 44 is highly sensitive to RSDS, which restricts its cultivation across drought-prone environments. Foreground selection was carried out using markers, RM520 for qDTY3.1 and RM 521 for qDTY2.1. Background selection was achieved with 97 polymorphic SSR markers in tandem with phenotypic selection to achieve faster recurrent parent genome (RPG) recovery. Three successive backcrosses followed by three selfings aided RPG recoveries of 98.6% to 99.4% among 31 near isogenic lines (NILs). Fourteen NILs were found to be significantly superior in yield and grain quality under RSDS with higher drought tolerance efficiency (DTE) than Pusa 44. Among these, the evaluation of two promising NILs in the multilocational trial during Kharif 2019 showed that they were significantly superior to Pusa 44 under reproductive stage drought stress, while performing on par with Pusa 44 under normal irrigated conditions. These di-QTL pyramided drought-tolerant NILs are in the final stages of testing the All India Coordinated Rice Improvement Project varietal trials for cultivar release. Alternately, the elite drought-tolerant Pusa 44 NILs will serve as an invaluable source of drought tolerance in rice improvement.
