DRR Dhan 58, a Seedling Stage Salinity Tolerant NIL of Improved Samba Mahsuri Shows Superior Performance in Multi-location Trials

BACKGROUND: Improved Samba Mahsuri (ISM) is an elite, high-yielding, bacterial blight resistant, fine-grained rice variety with low glycaemic index. It is highly sensitive to salt stress, particularly at seedling stage, which significantly reduces its yield potential in coastal areas. A salinity tolerant QTL, Saltol, associated with seedling stage tolerance was previously mapped on chromosome 1 (10.6–11.5 Mb) from the Indian landrace, Pokkali and is effective in different genetic backgrounds. The objective of this study was to enhance salinity tolerance of ISM by incorporating the Saltol QTL through marker-assisted backcross breeding using the breeding line, FL478 (Pokkali/IR29). RESULTS: Foreground selection was carried out at each generation using five Saltol-specific markers and three bacterial blight resistance genes, Xa21, xa13 and xa5. Background selection was conducted using 66 well distributed polymorphic SSR markers and at the BC(3)F(2) generation, a single plant with maximum recurrent parent genome recovery (95.3%) was identified and advanced to the BC(3)F(4) generation. Based on bacterial blight resistance, seedling stage salinity tolerance and resemblance to ISM, four advanced breeding lines were selected for testing in replicated experiments near Hyderabad, India. A promising near-isogenic line, DRR Dhan 58, was evaluated in multi-location trials-coastal salinity and it showed significant salinity tolerance, resistance to bacterial blight disease, high yield and excellent grain quality during the 2019 and 2020 trials. DRR Dhan 58 was 95.1% similar to ISM based on genotyping with the 90 K SNP chip. Whole genome resequencing analysis of Pokkali and FL478 which were salinity tolerant checks, ISM and DRR Dhan 58 showed a high degree of relatedness with respect to the candidate gene loci for Saltol and OsSKC1 (Shoot K(+) Concentration 1). CONCLUSION: DRR Dhan 58, possessing Saltol and three bacterial blight resistance genes (Xa21, xa13 and xa5) in the genetic background of the Indian mega-variety of rice, Samba Mahsuri, was developed for potential cultivation in areas prone to seedling stage salinity, as well as areas with endemic bacterial blight disease. This entry had a 24% yield advantage over the recurrent parent ISM under coastal saline conditions in multi-location trials and was recently released for commercial cultivation in India. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12284-022-00591-3.