Abstract
Marker-assisted breeding provides a great opportunity to the present-day researchers for breeding new crop varieties by design through precise transfer of desirable gene(s). Among the molecular breeding approaches, marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB) is an attractive proposition for breeders as it can help in improving an already popular variety for specific target traits such as resistance to disease/pest/improvement in quality. MABB has been successfully employed in transferring genes (xa13 and Xa21) governing resistance to diseases such as bacterial blight (BB), blast (Pi54, Pita, Pi1, Pi9, Pib, Piz5 and Pi5), sheath blight (qSBR 11-1), and brown plant hopper (BPH; Bph18, Bph20 and Bph21) into a number of Basmati rice varieties, namely Pusa Basmati 1, Pusa Basmati 1121, and Pusa Basmati 6 as well as long slender grain aromatic rice varieties such as Pusa Sugandh 5. Further, a major QTL for salt tolerance (Saltol) has been transferred to Pusa Basmati 1121 and Pusa Basmati 1, which are widely grown in northwestern India. Genetically enhanced donor sources in the form of near-isogenic lines (NILs) carrying major gene(s)/QTLs for resistance to biotic (BB, blast, sheath blight, and BPH) and abiotic (salt tolerance) stresses in the background Pusa Basmati 1, the first semi-dwarf, high-yielding Basmati rice variety, have been developed. QTL mapping using recombinant inbred line (RIL) population has unveiled several novel QTLs for different agronomic, grain and cooking quality traits. Besides their effective use in Basmati rice improvement, molecular markers are also utilized in basic studies as well as in maintenance breeding of Basmati rice varieties, which is discussed in the present chapter.
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