European Journal of Biotechnology and Bioscience

Authors
Ajay Prakash, Lincoln Mandal, Satish B. Verulkar

Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food of half of the world's human population. Drought is one of the major limited factors for growth of high-yielding rice varieties in drought-prone rainfed environments. The selected 48 lines of F6 generation were used for analysis derived from a cross between Mahamaya × Budda cultivar. Based on the yield of each line, the drought susceptibility index (DSI) was calculated for both situations i.e. rainfed as well as terminal stage drought. The graph for both the situations showed variation for DSI which indicate the polygenic nature drought tolerance. SMA and t-test were done for detecting the association between marker and Drought susceptibility index (DSI). The five SSR markers such as RM202, RM212, RM258, RM264 and RM279 were found polymorphic among the 66 SSR markers screened between parents. The markers “RM 202” and “RM 258” showed significant linkage with DSI at 5% level of significance. The data of five SSR markers were used to identify QTLs for drought susceptibility index. Two QTLs were detected for DSI on chromosome 10 and 11 on rice genome. These closely linked SSR markers with drought tolerance will facilitate early selection of drought tolerant lines and shorten breeding period.