Identification of a drought tolerant introgression line derived from Dongxiang common wild rice (O. rufipogon Griff.)

Construction of introgression lines using cultivated rice as recipient and wild rice is a novel approach to explore primitive and broad genetic resources in rice breeding. We recently generated a set of 159 introgression lines via a backcrossing program using an elite Indica cultivar rice Guichao 2 (O. sativa L. ssp. indica) as recipient and a common wild rice Dongxiang accession (O. rufipogon Griff.) as donor. In this study, we have evaluated the previously constructed 159 introgression lines for drought-tolerance. A total of 12 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to drought tolerance were mapped. Furthermore, a drought tolerant introgression line, IL23, was identified and characterized. Genotype analysis of IL23 demonstrated that IL23 contained two QTLs associated with drought tolerance, qSDT2-1 and qSDT12-2, which were located on chromosome 2 and 12 within the two introgressed segments derived from the common wild rice, respectively. Physiological characterization, including measurement of water loss, osmotic potential, electrolytical leakage, MDA content, soluble sugars content and the leaf temperature, revealed that IL23 showed the characteristics associated with drought tolerance. Identification and characterization of IL23 would provide a useful basis for isolation of novel genes associated with drought tolerance and for molecular breeding of drought tolerant rice. Furthermore, the results in this study indicated that construction of introgression lines from common wild rice should be an appropriate approach to obtain favorable genetic materials.