Identification of Promising RILs for High Grain Zinc Through Genotype × Environment Analysis and Stable Grain Zinc QTL Using SSRs and SNPs in Rice ( L.).

Polished rice is one of the commonly consumed staple foods across the world. However, it contains limited nutrients especially iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn). To identify promising recombinant inbred lines (RILs) for grain Zn and single plant yield, 190 RILs developed from PR116 and Ranbir Basmati were evaluated in two environments (E1 and E2).

Conversion of partial restorer Swarna into restorer by transferring fertility restorer Rf gene(s) through marker assisted back cross breeding (MABB) in rice.

The major constraints in hybrid rice breeding are availability of limited number of parental lines with specific desirable traits and lower frequency of restorers among elite breeding lines. The popular, high-yielding mega-rice variety Swarna, has been identified to be a partial restorer (as it has only one of major fertility restorer genes, Rf4) and hence cannot be utilized directly in the hybrid rice breeding. To convert the partial restorer to complete restorer, a cross was made between Swarna and a stable restorer KMR3R possessing Rf3 and Rf4 genes and developed BCF and BCF populations by marker-assisted back cross breeding (MABB).