Anther culture of an interspecific rice hybrid and selection of fine grain type with submergence tolerance

Improvement of rice with respect to resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses through introgression of alien genetic variation is an important breeding objective of wide hybridization. Anther culture of an interspecific hybrid between Oryza sativa L. cv. pankaj x O. rufipogon Griff. (both of them having "AA" genome) was done to obtain submergence tolerant high yielding recombinant type. Inoculation of anthers in five basal media viz. N6, modified N6, R3, He2 and He5 each one supplemented sith NAA (2 mg l^-1), kinetin (0.5 mg l^-1) and sucrose (5%) showed that the rate of callusing was highest (8.3%) in He2 medium. Calluses initiated in all the above five media when transferred to regeneration medium MS medium containing NAA (0.5 mg l^-1), kinetin (2 mg l^-1) and sucrose (3%)], percentage of green plant regeneration was also high (13%) in calluses initiated in He2 medium. Androgenic doubled haploid plants, showed 1:1 segregation of the traits for most of the morphological characters studied whereas, different segregating ratios were found in F₂ population. Wider range of variation for different agronomic characters were noted in androgenic population as compared to F₂>. Of the 533 field grown doubled haploid plants, five plants were O. sativa type parental forms with fine grains and submergence tolerant (tested at ten days old seedling stage). Further screening has helped to select only one awnless, fine grain, submergence tolerant line tested at seedling stage and six weeks old plant age. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.