Marker-assisted selection for transfer of submergence tolerance, bacterial blight resistance and yield enhancement in the rice backcross derivatives

Achieving the demand and supply of rice for the increasing global population will be a challenging task beyond 2040. Therefore, the yield potential of popular rice varieties needs to be increased. The production from lowland rice can be enhanced by managing the major biotic and abiotic stresses faced in the ecology. In this work, we have developed the pipelines for gene stacking of submergence tolerance, bacterial blight resistance and yield component QTLs in the popular rice variety ‘Swarna’ by marker-assisted backcross breeding approach. Genotyping results of 796 BC1F1 backcross derived lines showed the presence of GW2, OsSPL14, SCM2 yield component QTLs, Sub1A for submergence tolerance and bacterial blight resistance genes xa5 and Xa21 in the progenies. The four stacked QTLs and two resistance genes were observed in six backcrosses derived progenies only. These progenies will be used in the next generation for further selection and evaluation for enhancing submergence tolerance, yield potential and bacterial blight resistance in Swarna rice variety background.