Marker assisted pyramiding of qDTY QTLs governing yield under drought stress into rice variety ADT(R)45

Drought occurrence during reproductive stage of rice leads to signifcant yield loss. Rice production has to be doubled to feed the ever increasing human population. As the yield levels are stagnated under favourable production system, improvement of yield under unfavourable environment is key to attain the projected target. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to improve the drought tolerance of popular rice variety ADT(R)45 by introgressing major efect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) conferring yield under drought (qDTY_1.1, qDTY_3.1 and qDTY_12.1) through marker assisted backcross breeding (MABB). Through MABB, 117 BILs in the background of ADT(R)45 were developed with diferent combinations of qDTY QTLs. The BILs were evaluated under rainfed target production environment and observations on nine biometrical and yield traits were recorded. Variability analysis revealed presence of additive gene action for the traits viz., total number of tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant, hundred grain weight, yield per hectare and single plant yield. Hence, selection based on these traits will be efective to improve yield under drought stress. Association analysis showed total number of tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length, hundred grain weight and spikelet fertility percentage were highly correlated with yield per plant. Comparison of BILs with diferent QTL combinations showed that BILs with single QTL (qDTY_12.1) was better for most of the traits studied. BILs with single or two QTL combinations were found to perform better under rainfed condition, when compared to BILs with all the three QTLs.