• Sujatha edupuganti
• Pravallika
• Anusha
• Taheniyat Shahana
• Lalitha R

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses that drastically affect rice production in lowland rice ecosystem. A plant breeding processes in stress conditions improved yield in drought environments. Identifying the traits of importance and genomic regions influencing the response of drought tolerance and yield traits on grain yield will aid the breeders to know the genetic mechanism of drought tolerance of rice leads to the development of drought tolerant varieties. Rice breeding programs focusing on drought resistance by direct selection for yield under stress have made little progress till to date. Incorporation of secondary traits contributing in drought resistance will hasten development of cultivars with improved performance under water-limiting environments. For further progress, many QTLs are developed which are affecting yield under drought. Molecular genetics has provided genes which are useful for a transgenic approach. Molecular biology has developed new tools to know the complex network of drought related traits. Several molecular markers for QTLs are developed in plant breeding. The increasingly cloned quantitative trait loci and genes, genome variations and haplotype blocks related to agronomically important traits in rice have provided a solid foundation for direct selection and molecular breeding and a number of genes have been successfully introgressed into mega varieties of rice.

Drought tolerance, physiological mechanisms, molecular markers, QTLs

"Physiological and molecular mechanisms in improving drought tolerance in rice cultivars.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no.408-412, January-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901757.pdf

"Physiological and molecular mechanisms in improving drought tolerance in rice cultivars.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no. pp408-412, January-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901757.pdf