Marker Assisted Introgression of Saltol QTL into “APMS 6B” to Enhance Salt Tolerance at Seedling Stage of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

APMS 6B which is highly sensitive to salinity was used as a recurrent parent to introgress Saltol QTL from FL-478. Two gene linked markers viz., RM8094 and RM10793 were used for used to confirm backcross generations for saltol QTL. Two successive backcrosses were attempted to transfer target alleles of Saltol from FL478 into APMS-6B. After backcross progrmme, the BC2F1 plants subjected to foreground selection by using gene specific markers, positive plants for target gene were selected and selfed to raise BC2F2 populations. Twenty BC2F2 plants were identified to be homozygous dominant for Saltol QTL and these BC2F2 lines were also screened in plastic trays using Yoshida solution at the seedling stage. A total of BC2F2 lines were confirmed for the target gene and displayed a high level of salinity tolerance without any symptoms on their leaves, with a score of ‘0’.