Agronomic performances of aromatic and non-aromatic M1 rice under drought stress

Abstract

Flooded rice paddy fields act as a source of greenhouse gas emissions. So, the efforts to increase the drought tolerance of rice represent a much more environmentally friendly solution, and may bring a significant contribution to prevent global warming. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with ten replicates. Rice cultivars treated with different levels of γ irradiation and sodium azide (SA) soaking time were allocated in the main plots, and mutagen groups in sub-plots. We use the generalized linear models, as implemented in the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS University Edition, to analyze agronomic performances. These results showed that the genotypes in M1 generation present diversity under the drought stress level of -0.03 MPa, and the best combination between cultivar and mutagen is Inpago Unsoed 1 that was irradiated with γ 100 Gy and then soaked in SA for 2h. These genotypes can be used as a sources of drought tolerance in future rice breeding programmes.