Introgression of drought tolerance QTLs through marker assisted backcross breeding in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

The present study reports the introgression of the genomic regions linked with drought tolerance traits viz., NDVI, staygreen, chlorophyll content/chlorophyll fluorescence and yield from a drought tolerant parent HI1500 in to a popular high yielding but drought susceptible wheat variety GW322 following the marker assisted backcross breeding. Background selection with 109 polymorphic SSR markers accelerated genome recovery of recurrent parent which ranged from 72.14 to 86.9% in BC1F1, 90.33 to 92.02% in BC2F1 and 91.6 to 94.95% with an average of 93.5% in BC2F2 generation. Eighteen homozygous BC2F3 progenies were found to be phenotypically superior for morpho-physiological and agronomic traits over the recurrent parent GW322.