Marker assisted pyramiding of drought yield QTLs into a popular Malaysian rice cultivar, MR219

Abstract

We successfully developed drought-tolerant MR219 pyramided lines with a yield advantage of more than 1500 kg ha(-1). Differential yield advantages of different combinations of the qDTYs indicate a differential synergistic relationship among qDTYs. This is the first report on the successful effect of qDTYs in increasing the yield under drought in genetic backgrounds other than those in which the qDTYs were earlier identified.