Research Projects

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple food crop and majority of world's population depends on it. Among the abiotic stresses anaerobic germination, (early and uniform germination) drought and submergence under direct seeded rice are the major problems limiting rice production in rainfed areas of south and southeast Asia. However, these are complex traits as timing, duration and intensity is unpredictable. Earlier efforts to improve rice yield for these abiotic stresses mainly focused on improving secondary traits resulted in negligible progress to improve yield under stress. Reports of direct selection for yield under stress is said to be moderately heritable. Considering the above situations, present research focuses on development of climate resilient genotype development in rice by utilizing Marker Assisted Forward Breeding and Marker Assisted Backcross Breeding (Kumar et al., 2017). Hence, the present study has been formulated to address the above said facts through combined approach of MAFB and MABC to bring all the desired genes/QTLs into single background of ADT54. To assess the effect of drought, submergence, anaerobic germination, non lodging and nutrient use efficiency QTLs on yield under water stress under DsR derived from donor genotypes viz., CR DHAN 801, Karuthakar, ADT 52 and APO in the background of popular rice variety, ADT 54. The Introgression Lines and BIL population derived out of the above crosses will be analysed both for its genetic and phenotypic variability for yield, drought, anaerobic germination and submergence related traits to identify elite genotypes to be used in future abiotic stress breeding progammes.