Production of salt tolerant rice breeding line via doubled haploid

A haploid breeding program was initiated to develop doubled haploid salt tolerant rice breeding line via anther culture. Two sensitive breeding lines BR4608-R sub(1)-R sub(2) and BR4909-R sub(1)-R sub(2) were crossed with a salt tolerant line IR13146-13-3-3 to transfer its salt tolerant character to the doubled haploids. Anther from confirmed F sub(1)s of the two crosses were cultured in defined medium for callus induction and eventual plant regeneration. Fifteen doubled haploid (DH) lines were obtained from two crosses. Test for salt tolerance were done in vitro. Five out of 15 lines were found tolerant at the level of 8-10 decisiemens/m (ds/m) while the rests were sensitive to that level of salinity. Field experiment was conducted to evaluate the doubled haploids under saline and non saline soil. Five salt tolerant lines produced comparable yield with the resistant control (BR 23) under saline condition, whereas these lines yielded even higher in non saline soil under irrigated condition when evaluated with other 10 sensitive DH lines.