~ 1088 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; SP1: 1088-1091 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2018; SP1: 1088-1091 Hari Shankar Research Scholar, Bhagwant University, Department of Agriculture, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India Narendra Pratap Narendra Dev University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, India Devaraja Achar HOD, Biotechnology, Indo- American Hybrid seeds (I) Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, Uttar Pradesh, India Vikram Kumar Yadav Research Scholar, Bhagwant University, Department of Agriculture, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India Amit Kumar Research Scholar, Bhagwant University, Department of Agriculture, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India Shesh Narain Singh Narendra Dev University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, India Correspondence Hari Shankar Research Scholar, Bhagwant University, Department of Agriculture, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India Introgression of blast resistance genes (Pi-54) into elite rice cultivar kalanamak through marker-assisted Selection Hari Shankar, Narendra Pratap, Devaraja Achar, Vikram Kumar Yadav, Amit Kumar and Shesh Narain Singh Abstract Kalanamak is one of the finest quality scented rice of India (Singh et al., 2003). Kalanamak rice is affected by blast disease intolerance due to which its yield reduces. To overcome these problems we pyramided blast resistance tolerance gene into Kalanamak by marker assisted backcrossing breeding programme. Kalanamak was crossed with Tetep for blast resistance (Pi54) and independent backcross generation were developed followed by foreground selection and phenotyping for targeted trait. Each independent backcross generation was further crossed together to pool the gene into a single background and gene positive plants were selected by foreground selection, phenotyping, and background selection. Hybrid plants (K-T) carrying the genes had blast reistance. A substantial ground work has been done to incorporate the gene but there is need to systematically study the effect of background genome on expression of major genes control for blast resistance. Advanced backcross generation of K-T(BC1F1) have to be developed so that we can achieve total recovery of recurrent parent genome along with the desired trait/gene as well as eliminate the effect of linkage drag of donor segments. Keywords: Chr: Chromosome, K-T: Kalanamak Tetep Cross, K: Kalanamak, T: Tetep, M: Marker Introduction Rice is one of the most important cash crop in the world and it also plays significant role in the Indian economy. The aromatic rice varieties are mainly grown and consumed in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran and United states. Almost every state of India has its own set of aromatic rice that performs well in native areas (Shobha Rani and Krishnaiah, 2001) These aromatic rices also possess exemplary quality traits like aroma, fluffiness and taste. Aromatic or scented rice have occupied a prime position in Indian cuisine owing to their physical characteristics and cooking qualities. There are many scented rice cultivar, among them Kalanamak is one of the finest quality scented rice of India (Singh et al., 2003). Production of Kalanamak has declined too because of its proneness to blast disease. Blast disease in Kalanamak rice is the most devastating plant diseases which is caused by fungus Magnaporthe oryzae anamorph Pyricularia oryzae (Couch and Kohn, 2002) and it has been reported from more than 85 countries (Kato, 2001). This fungus attacks all aerial parts of the rice plants at all stages of growth, although the leaves and the neck of the panicle are most commonly affected. To control the incidence of blast disease; conventional plant breeding strategies as well as high cost application of fungicides (Barman and Chattoo, 2011) are used but there is 10 million tonnes annual yield loss even though these control measures are in place (Xu et al., 2008). So, development of resistant cultivars is considered as the most effective method to counteract the pathogen. Recurrent backcrossing is a traditional breeding method commonly employed to transfer alleles at one or more loci from a donor to an elite variety (Allad et.al., 1960) & (Valdes et al., 2000). The main purpose of backcrossing is to decline the donor genome content into the progenies (Xi et al., 2008). Backcross breeding has been adopted in the South and Southeast Asia (Joseph et al.,2004 & Toojinda et al.,2005) as breeding strategy to improve elite varieties such as KDML105, Basmati and Manawthukha for their resistances to blast (Sreewongchai et al.,2010). Several blast resistance genes (Pi) demonstrated their ability in conferring resistance to different blast pathotypes. Among them, the genes Pi1, Pi2, Pi5, Pi7, Pi9, Pi33, Pib, Pik, Pik-p, Pita, Pita2, Piz, Pizt, Pikh and Pi54 show a broad spectrum of action (Tacconi et al., 2010). Keeping in mind these facts present study was done to assess Blast resistant kalnamak rice by incorporating Tetep(Pi54), the major QTL associated with blast resistance using MAB.