Molecular breeding for drought tolerance in pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] using microsatellite markers
Loading...
Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
Pearl millet is a small grain, 1.7Gb genome size, photosynthetically efficient, C4 monocot. It is a staple food and fodder crop for millions of people inhabiting hot and dry areas of arid and semi-arid tropics. Occurrence of terminal drought stress is very common in such regions, thus making stress tolerance an essential attribute in pearl millet breeding programmes. A major QTL associated with grain yield under terminal drought stress was mapped on linkage group 2, accounting for 32% phenotypic variation for grain yield under drought stress. Another QTL accounting for 14.8% phenotypic variation for grain yield was mapped on linkage group 5. In the present study, HBL 11 was introgressed with drought-tolerant QTLs from PRLT 2 and 863 B for improving a commercial pearl millet hybrid HHB 226 against terminal drought stress using marker-assisted backcrossing. Three SSR marker (PSMP2066, PSMP2077 and PSMP2059) linked to LG 2 and one SSR marker (PSMP2078) linked to LG 5 were used to carry out foreground selection in BC4F2 generation. The selected plants were undertaken for background analysis. Thirty-two and twenty-five polymorphic SSR markers used for background analysis in cross HBL 11 x PRLT 2 and HBL 11 x 863 B respectively. About 97% and 82% recurrent parent genome recovery was observed in one each of the selected lines in cross HBL 11 x PRLT 2 and HBL 11 x 863 B respectively. Plants positive in foreground selection and with high recurrent parent genome recovery were taken for analysis of morpho-physiological and yield-related traits. Thousand seed weight, relative water content and chlorophyll fluorescence were found to be increased and electrolyte leakage was decreased in comparison to recurrent parent. The introgression of drought tolerance QTLs from donor parents was established and recurrent parent genome was recovered. Improved versions of HBL 11 have been developed which can be crossed with ICMA 843-22 to develop improved HHB 226.
Description
Keywords
null