Evaluation of promising cytoplasmic male sterile lines of rice for agronomical and floral traits

Thirty cytoplasmic male sterile(CMS) lines of rice, received from various sources, were evaluated for agronomical traits viz., days to 50% flowering, plant height, productive tillers plant⁻¹, panicle length, panicle exertion (%), total spikelets panicle⁻¹ and their floral traits viz. stigma exertion (%), pollen sterility (%), spikelet sterility (%), outcrossing (%) and phenotypic acceptability with standard check CMS line IR-58025A. Eleven CMS lines viz., IR-68888A, IR-62829A, IR-68892A, IR-68893A, IR-69628A, IR-68886A, IR-68885A, PMS-5A, PMS-10A, COMS-9A, CRMS-32A were of early duration and rest lines were of medium duration (91–102 days to flowering). The CMS lines exhibited the maximum plant height in IR-68886A (106.33cm), days to 50% flowering in IR70372A (101 days), productive tillers per plant in IR-69628A (9.33), panicle length in IR-70372A (33.25 cm), panicle exertion in IR-70369A (90%), spikelets per panicle in IR-68892A (192), stigma exertion in IR-68888A (61%), pollen and spikelet sterility in RTN-15A (100%, 99%) and maximum outcrossing in IR-68902A (40%). Out of 29 CMS lines RTN-9A, RTN-12A, IR-70369A, IR-68886A, IR-70959A, IR-70372A, IR-69626A, IR-68897A, IR-68902A, and IR-62275A were promising for most of the agronomical and floral traits under the investigation and could be used in the heterosis rice breeding programme. Among the CMS lines, 3 lines categorized as very good; 14 good and 12 average based on their over all performance.