Vol. 11, Special Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
Ritu Khasa, Sushil Kumar and Rajendra Kumar Jain

Abstract:
Experiments were conducted to gauge segregating Pusa 1121 x MAS26 (aerobic) F₂ populations for various physio-morphological, root traits, allelic diversity for BAD2 (aroma) gene and microsatellite markers linked to the traits promoting aerobic adaptation. Vast variation was noted for plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, grain length/breadth ratio, root thickness, root length, fresh and dry root weight, panicle length, 1000 grain weight, and yield per plant in all the three populations. In these populations, remarkable positive correlation was found between yield per plant with 1000 grain weight, plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, length/breadth ratio, root biomass and root length biomass. At BAD2 aroma locus in 52 plants of this populations, 36 plants had Basmati specific allele in homozygous condition, 7 plants had indica allele (homozygous condition) and 9 plants had both Basmati and indica allele (heterozygous condition). The NTSYS-pc dendrogram and 2D PCA were prepared and F₂ population was inclined towards MAS26. A number of promising F₂ plants have been selected, which had Basmati specific allele at BAD2 locus (either in homozygous or heterozygous condition) and higher grain yield, root length and biomass greater than MAS26 for further progeny analysis. In microsatellite markers analysis, most of these selected plants owned the desired allele for the markers reported earlier to be linked with the aerobic adaptation traits.