Rice Breeding for High Grain Yield under Drought: A Strategic Solution to a Complex Problem

Table 1

Some examples of enhancing drought tolerance of rice varieties through marker assisted selection (MAS).

QTL used	QTL donor line/cultivar	Recipient line/cultivar	Line/cultivar developed	Trait improved	Reference
QTL9 (on chromosome 9)	Azucena	Kalinga III	Near-isogenic lines (NILs)	Improved root length and thickness under both irrigated and drought-stressed field conditions	Steele et al. [35]
QTL9 (on chromosome 9)	Azucena	Kalinga III	Near-isogenic lines (NILs)	Under field conditions, NILs out-performed Kalinga III for grain and straw yield. However, the lines had higher straw yield than grain yield as introgressed genes involved in partitioning of biomass to the roots and stems, rather than to the grain	Steele et al. [36]
QTL2 (on chromosome 2) QTL9 (on chromosome 9) and QTL11 (on chromosome 11)	Azucena	Kalinga III	Birsa Vikas Dhan 111 (PY 84)	Early maturing and high yielding; good grain quality; drought tolerant	Steele [37]
qtl12.1	Way Rarem	Vandana	F3-derived populations	Improved biomass production; panicle number; and 47% average yield	Bernier et al. [21]

Source: Ashraf [12].