Screening of Rice Germplasm Against Blast Disease Under Temperate Conditions ABSTRACT 
,
Rather A.G.1 
,
Najeeb S.2 ,
Ashraf Ahangar M.2
2. Mountain Research Centre for Field Crops Khudwani, Anantnag, SKUAST-Kashmir
Author Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2015, Vol. 6, No. 13 doi: 10.5376/mpb.2015.06.0013
Received: 07 Jun., 2015 Accepted: 15 Jul., 2015 Published: 18 Aug., 2015
Dar S.H., Rather A.G., Najeeb S and Ashraf Ahangar M., 2015, Screening of Rice Germplasm Against Blast Disease Under Temperate Conditions ABSTRACT, Molecular Plant Breeding, 6(13) 1-4 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2015.06.0013)
Rice is the world’s most important food crop as it provides nutrition to the two third of its population. The improvement in yield of this crop is challenged by several biotic and abiotic factors. Among the biotic stresses rice blast is a serious production constraint for rice under Kashmir conditions. Keeping in view a disease screening field trial of rice germplasm consisting of 9 parents, 27 crosses and one local check was established during the kharif, 2012 at two sites in Kashmir (India) to determine resistance intensity in rice germplasm against Pyricularia grisea, the cause of rice blast disease. Screening was done under natural epiphytotic conditions and the results revealed that none of the test lines was immune or highly resistant. Four crosses namely K-08-60 x IR-68888A, K-08-61 x SKAU-11A, K-08-61 x IR-68888A, PS-5 x SKAU-11A and one parent PS-5 were found to be resistant. Seven hybrids and four parents displayed moderately resistant response. Three crosses and equal number of parents were found to be moderately susceptible. Rest of the crosses and parents showed susceptible to highly susceptible response. Genotypes performed almost equally at both of these locations with respect to their disease intensity. All the resistant and moderately resistant crosses and parents can be utilized as a source of resistance for developing blast resistant cultivars especially for temperate ecologies.