Evaluation of newly developed eMS lines of rice (Oryza sativa L.) for their agronomical and floral traits

Newly developed 20 CMS lines of rice (Oryza sativa L.) derived from five different sources of cytoplasm were evaluated for agronomical traits viz., days to 50% flowering, plant height (cm), number of tillers/plant, panicle length (cm), panicle exertion (%) and number of spikelets per panicle and their floral traits viz., angle of floret opening, stigma exertion (%), blooming duration (days), duration of floret opening (min), anthesis duration, pollen sterility (%) and out crossing (%) with standard check CMS line IR-58025A. Four CMS lines viz., RTN-2A, RTN-11 A, RTN-14A and RTN-13A were of early duration and rests of the 16 lines were of medium duration (91–106 days). The CMS lines exhibited significantly maximum values in RTN-19A (plant height), RTN-9A (productive tillers plant⁻¹), RTN-17A (panicle length), RTN-18A (percent panicle exertion), RTN-5A (spikelets panicle-1), RTN-10A (blooming duration, outcrossing percent and angle of floret opening), RTN-11A (stigma exertion per cent), RTN-2A (duration of floret opening), RTN-7A (duration of anthesis), RTN-12A (outcrossing percent) and RTN-9A, RTN-3A, RTN-12A, RTN-16A, RTN-18A (100% pollen sterility) for various characters. Out of twenty CMS lines, 7 CMS lines viz., RTN-10A, RTN-9A, RTN-18A, RTN-7A, RTN-12A, RTN-3A, and RTN-16A were found promising for almost all agronomical and floral traits under study. These promising CMS lines showed over all excellent phenotypic acceptability and could be used for development of new hybrid rice combinations.