Development of dual stress-tolerant rice variety Jyothi with Saltol and Sub1 genes through marker-assisted backcross breeding.

Abiotic stresses such as salinity, submergence, drought and extreme temperatures greatly affect rice production worldwide. Marker-assisted selection was effectively used to introgress QTLs for salinity tolerance (Saltol) and submergence tolerance (Sub1) into the background of elite rice variety Jyothi. Saltol introgressed BC₁F₂ lines of Jyothi with 79.3% of recipient parent genome was crossed with Sub1 introgressed BC₂F₂ lines of Jyothi showing 95.9% of parent genome recovery. F₁ progenies were screened with Saltol and Sub1 linked foreground markers and recombinant markers. F₁ heterozygous plants were selfed to produce F₂ generation. F₂ progenies homozygous for both the loci were selected. Phenotypic screening for salinity and submergence tolerance was performed to validate the introgressed genes. The plants able to tolerate both salinity and submergence stresses were selected for selfing to raise F₃ progenies. The pyramided lines were also similar to recurrent parent in agro-morphological and grain quality traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]