Evaluation and Bulked Segregant Analysis of Major Yield QTL qtl12.1 Introgressed into Indigenous Elite Line for Low Water Availability under Water Stress

Near isogenic lines carrying large-effect QTL (qtl12.1), which has a consistent influence on grain yield under upland drought stress conditions in a wide range of environments, were evaluated under water stress in the fields. The line which gave higher yield under drought was crossed with a local elite line, PMK3, and forwarded to F2:3 generation. Significant variation was found among the F2:3 lines for agronomic traits under water stress in the fields. Low to high broad sense heritability (H) for investigated traits was also found. Water stress indicators such as leaf rolling and leaf drying were negatively correlated with plant height, biomass and grain yield under stress. Bulked segregant analysis (BSA) was performed with the markers in the vicinity of qtl12.1, and RM27933 was found to be segregated perfectly well in individual components of drought resistant and drought susceptible bulks which were bulked based on yield under water stress among F2:3 lines. Hence, this simple and breeder friendly marker, RM27933, may be useful as a potentially valuable candidate marker for the transfer of the QTL qtl12.1 in the regional breeding program. Bioinformatic analysis of the DNA sequence of the qtl12.1 region was also done to identify and analyze positional candidate genes associated with this QTL and to ascertain the putative molecular basis of qtl12.1.