Identification of Qtls for Drought Susceptibility Index in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the prime staple food in many countries of the world. Drought stress is the predominant cause for rice yield reduction and production stability in rainfed and poorly irrigated rice ecosystems. Development of cultivars with improved drought tolerance is thus an important element in increasing productivity and alleviating poverty of communities depends on rainfed ecosystem. Identification of QTLs and molecular markers linked to drought tolerance can substantially improve selection efficiency. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to carry out the genetic analysis coupled with identification of QTLs for traits related to drought susceptibility index. 45 lines of F₃ population of two indica genotypes, Swarna and IR86931-B-6 were evaluated under Irrigated, Rainout shelter I and Rainout shelter II condition at Research cum Instructional Farm of College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur, to generate phenotypic data and SSR and HvSSR based genotypic data of population. The phenotypic and genotypic data was analyzed for identification of QTLs related to drought susceptibility index (DSI). 100 SSR and HvSSR primers were screened for detecting parental polymorphism, out of which 37 showed polymorphisms. 37 SSR and HvSSR markers were further used for developing genotypic data. QTLs for DSI were identified on chromosome 3 and chromosome 5 under rain out shelter II condition.