Friday, 26 December 2025

Genetics of Coastal Habituation: How Recombinant Inbred Lines Respond to Saline Environments | Chapter 10 | Agricultural Sciences: Techniques and Innovations Vol. 6

 

Background: Among all abiotic stresses, salinity is the second most widespread soil problem in rice-growing countries of the world after drought, which continues due to climate change and poor irrigation practices. Rice is highly sensitive to salinity, particularly at the seedling and reproductive stages. Identifying rice genotypes tolerating salinity both at the seedling and at reproductive stages that maintain stable yield in coastal saline soils requires an understanding of genetic variability and trait relationships in terms of direct and indirect effects to develop salt-tolerant rice varieties.

 

Aim: The aim of this study is to assess phenotypic performance and to estimate genetic variability for salt tolerance in both the seedling and reproductive stages of rice under coastal saline soils.

 

Methodology: The present study was conducted at the natural coastal saline soils of Acharya N. G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU)- Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Machilipatnam, during Kharif (June to November) 2024. A field experiment was carried out to evaluate Recombinant Inbred lines (RILs) derived from the cross MCM 109/BRR 0119 for salt tolerance in an Alpha-lattice design. Here, 150 RILs at F5 generation were studied at pH 8.4, and EC 7.2 dSm-1 and data on yield and salinity traits were collected. Salt tolerance was evaluated at the seedling and reproductive stages using the standard evaluation system (SES), with scores from 1 (highly tolerant) to 9 (highly susceptible) based on growth, leaf symptoms, and spikelet sterility. Statistical analysis was performed using PBIB.test, GCV, PCV, heritability and GA as per cent of the mean were drawn from the variability package of R software.

 

Results: The analysis of variance (ANOVA) for 12 characters attributed significant differences among 150 RILs studied under salinity (P<0.01). The traits ear bearing tillers hill-1, salinity scoring at reproductive stage, shoot Na+/K+ ratio at harvesting stage, and grain yield per plant (g) exhibited high estimates of GCV, PCV, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of the mean, suggesting additive gene action. While the traits plant survival (%), plant height (cm), panicle length (cm), number of filled grains per panicle, spikelet fertility % and hundred grain weight (g) exhibited moderate PCV and GCV values with high heritability and genetic advance, indicating substantial genetic variability for effective selection.

 

Conclusion: Selecting RILs based on variability traits results in the development of salt-tolerant, high-yielding varieties suitable for coastal saline soils. RILs F5 112 and F5 248 can be released as high-yielding saline-tolerant varieties after evaluation in salinity trials and multi-location trials, whereas RILs F5 122 and F5 202 can be registered as genetic stocks for highly tolerant coastal saline conditions.

 

 

Author(s) Details

Vinutna Vinnakota
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Agricultural College, Bapatla, Andhra Pradesh, India.

 

Girija Rani M
ANGRAU-RARS, Maruteru, West Godavari, India.

 

Nagendra Rao K
ANGRAU-ARS, Machilipatnam, Krishna, India.

 

Suneetha K
ICAR-IIRR, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, India.

 

Ravi Babu M
ANGRAU-RARS, Anakapalle, Visakhapatnam, India.

 

Please see the link:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/asti/v6/6807

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