Agronomic performance of the constituted near-isogenic lines in hexaploid wheat

Abstract

Deployment of diverse genetic sources for disease resistance in high yielding wheats assists in achieving yield stability at higher levels of productivity without resorting to costly and potentially harmful chemicals. There were a few earlier reports of yield variation associated with transfer of rust resistance genes in wheat. This was attributed to presence or absence of 'linkage drag' associated with the transferred gene. The present communication reports the agronomic performance of near-isogenic lines carrying various rust resistance genes in a few Indian wheat ~ultivars. Near-isogenic wheat lines carrying six Lr genes (Lt9, Lr19, Lr24, Lr28, Lr32 and Lr37), three Sr genes (Sr24, Sr25 and Sr38) and one Yr gene (Yr17), in the genetic background of four hexaploid wheat varieties (HUW 318, PBW 226, HI 1077, WH 542) were constituted in BC2F5 and BC5F5 generations. Each constituted near-isogenic line was grown in the field 3 x 2 metre plot and replicated three times. Grain yield of all the lines were compared with the respective recurrent parents under rust free condition created by using Tilt. The plot grain yield was recorded and expressed in quintal per hectare. Factorial RBD was used to compare the means of population, treatment and interaction.