PHENOTYPIC SCREENING AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERISATION OF ADVANCED BREEDING LINES FOR INTROGRESSION OF BLAST RESISTANT GENES IN RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.)

Biotic stresses are major threat to rice production.Among the biotic stresses, blast is one of the major diseases affecting rice grain production.Present investigation was conducted to evaluate genotypic and phenotypic effect of 50 breeding lines from a cross (MTU1010 x Akshayadhan NIL) in glass house at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Jagtial.50 advanced breeding lines were screened through foreground selection for confirmation of presence of target trait specific genes viz., for blast (Pi54) was carried out with co-dominant marker Pi54-MAS for checking the presence of Pi54.Out of 50 advanced breeding lines, 35 lines possess resistant allele of Pi54 gene.Phenotypic screening of 50 breeding lines was done in uniform blast nursery; among them 35 breeding lines were shown resistance against blast disease.The results obtained in the present study indicate the success of combining marker assisted breeding with phenotypic selection.Cultivation of biotic stress resistance breeding lines developed in this study would be great advantage in blast endemic areas and can be expand the area under MTU1010 NIL.