Sofi, Najeeb ul RehmanMusharib Gull2024-08-202024-08-202024https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810213378`Pigmented rices are popular across the country and some States possesses a rich cultural heritage of unique quality rice types usually grown in specific ecological niches. Apart from cultivation of important high yielding varieties, considerable area is planted under pigmented landraces under certain pockets of the State. The most prominent among them is Red rice(Zag) which is known for its distinctive flavour, texture, and nutritional value. Zag is a significant Kashmiri landrace that is renowned for having higher than average levels of iron and zinc as well as polyphenols, anthocyanins, and antioxidants. But the area planted with red rice is shrinking because red rice is highly susceptible to Blast disease caused by Magnophorthe oryzae, where losses can go as high as 70% to complete yield loss. Therefore, utilising a three-gene donor line, DHMAS70Q 164-1b, a decision was made to incorporate three important genes, namely Pi54, Pi1, and Pita, into the genetic background of red rice cultivar Zag. The two were crossed and BC1F1, BC1F2 and BC1F3 progenies were generated through marker-assisted backcross breeding. Marker-assisted foreground selection was carried out using molecular markers Pi54 MAS, RM224 and YL 155/87 in order to select for genes Pi54, Pi1 and Pita, respectively. In BC1F1 foreground selection was carried on 15 plants for the genes Pi54, Pi1 and Pita of which two plants K16-32-2 and K16-32-6 were found to be heterozygous for all the three genes. The three-gene BC1F1 plants were selfed to yield 100 BC1F2 plants. The plants, however, were again analyzed in BC1F2 for identification of homozygous plants that were homozygous for three, two or one genes. Among which 10 best plants were selected on the basis of plant and grain type and were subjected to the background analysis using 16 genome wide markers polymorphic between Zag and DHMAS 70Q 164-1b. The pyramided lines were also subjected to SNP Genotyping using 55 SNPs and were evaluated for agronomic traits, grain and cooking quality. Six three-gene pyramids carrying genes Pi54+Pi1+Pita were developed during the current program. The best lines namely K16-32-2-20, K16-32-2-22, K16-32-6-51 and K16-32-6-81 recorded a background genome recovery of 68.75, 86, 84 and 80 percent, respectively. The derived lines expressed resistance to diagnostic isolates under controlled conditions and also showed resistance under natural conditions of Khudwani. The backcross derived lines possesses cooking quality traits similar to parent Zag. The lines may be put to multi-location testing and may be released as improved resistant versions of landrace Zag.EnglishGene pyramidingmarker assisted back cross breedingblast resistanceZagGenetics and Plant BreedingThesis