We are glad to announce that Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI) will be conducting a special colloquium on “Harnessing the natural and induced genetic variations for crop improvement” on 18 November 2022, 12 noon at Seminar Hall, Narendrapur Campus.
Speaker : Dr. Kishor Kumar, RKMVERI
Co-ordinator: Abhijit Chakrabarti
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important cereal and source of calories for more than half of the world’s population. Rice production is largely hampered by many abiotic and biotic stresses. Among biotic stresses, brown planthopper (BPH, Nilaparvata lugens Stål) causes up to 60% of yield loss under severe conditions. Chemical measures are mostly ineffective, costly, and potentially harmful to the environment and human health. Therefore, the utilization of natural host-plant resistance is considered one of the most economical and effective measures for BPH management. Wild species of rice carry enormous genetic diversity for biotic stress tolerance genes. We reported mapping of a highly effective, single, dominant quantitative trait locus (QTL), designated as Bph34 on the long arm of chromosome 4 that confers resistance to BPH in a wild rice O. nivara (AA genome). The Bph34 was further delineated to a 91.6 kb region, based on the rice reference genome harboring 11 candidate genes. The same mapping population was used for mapping purple sheath color and plant height QTL at higher resolution using an SNP-based high-density linkage map. Wild species with the distant genomic constitution are highly cumbersome to utilize in breeding programs. Embryos of such cross degenerate easily and required embryo rescue for their establishment. We produced a synthetic amphidiploid containing the AABB genome (tetraploid) derived from O. sativa (AA) X O. punctata (BB) for enhancing high biomass and high grain number in rice. Currently, UGC-DAE CSR-sponsored project has been undertaken at the IRDM faculty center to improve the traditional aromatic rice using gamma-irradiated mutagenesis. The mutant genes identified in this study will be important resources for functional genomics study. The mutant germplasm could be served as an excellent pre-breeding material for varietal development.