Development of host plant resistance in an elite maintainer line DRR17B for Bacterial Blight and Blast through marker assisted backcross selection

Balachiranjeevi CH; Bhaskar Naik S; Abhilash V; Mahadeva Swamy HK; Harika G; Hajira SK; Hari Prasad AS; Laha G S; Madav MS; Archana Giri; Sundaram RM

Volume : IV, Issue : VIII, August - 2015

Development of host plant resistance in an elite maintainer line DRR17B for Bacterial Blight and Blast through marker assisted backcross selection

Balachiranjeevi Ch, Bhaskar Naik S, Abhilash V, Mahadeva Swamy Hk, Harika G, Hajira Sk, Hari Prasad As, Laha G S, Madav Ms, Archana Giri, Sundaram Rm

Abstract :

Marker assisted backcross eeding (MABB) is a promising strategy for improvement of elite crop varieties and hyids for one or more agronomical traits with minimal linkage drag. DRR17A is a medium duration, wild–abortive cytoplasmic male sterile (WA–CMS) line, possessing desirable, medium slender grain type and is being used for developing a few promising pipeline hyids at Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad, India. As DRR17A and its maintainer line, DRR17B are highly susceptible for bacterial blight (BB) and blast diseases, we attempted improve disease resistance of DRR17B by adopting MABB strategy. A eeding line in the genetic background of Samba Mahsuri, FBR1–15 possessing the bacterial blight resistance gene, Xa33 and C101A51 possessing the blast resistance gene, Pi2 served as donor lines in two separate backcrosses in which DRR17B served as the recurrent parent. At each backcross generation, plants possessing Xa33 or Pi2 in heterozygous condition were identified with help of gene–specific markers and backcrossing was continued till BC2 generation. At BC2F2, a promising backcross plant each from the two sets of backcrosses, possessing either Xa33 or Pi2 in homozygous condition were intercrossed to combine the two genes in the background of DRR17B. Homozygous lines possessing both Xa33 and Pi2 were identified with the help of gene specific markers at ICF2 generation and advanced by pedigree method till ICF5 generation. The gene pyramid lines of DRR17B possessing BB and blast resistance are being evaluated for disease resistance, yield and agro–morphological parameters.