Identification of Novel QTLs for BPH Tolerance in Rice Using Resistant Donor BM 71

Abstract

Rice is the most widely grown crop in the world, feeding half of the world’s population. Brown plant hopper (BPH) is a considerable risk to rice fields carrying 20-90% yield losses. Hopper burn can be effectively managed by the recognition and use of BPH genes. Marker based genetic analysis of 136 RILcollected from a high yielding susceptible variety, MTU 3626 and BM 71, a BPH donor developed at RARS, identified 3 minor novel QTLs viz; qmbph2.1,qmbph4.1 and qmbph12.1 on chromosomes 2, 4 and 12 and two other QTLson chromosome 5 and 7, namelyqmbph5.1 and qmbph7.1. The phenotyping of RIL’s revealed that ten RIL’s (2711 – 31, 2711 – 37, 2711 – 50, 2711 – 69, 2711 – 84, 2711 – 88, 2711 – 94, 2711 – 100, 2711 – 168 and 2711 – 191) recorded yields comparable to checks, Swarna and Pushyami along with BPH score similar to donor. The BPH resistance lines recognised will be further evaluated, and the confirmed lines can be employed in rice breeding programs.