Abstract

                                Climate change is leading to rising global temperatures, causing shifts in weather patterns and more frequent extreme heat events. These temperature shifts disrupt plant growth and development, threateningglobal ecosystems and food security. Finger millet is a climate-resilient crop, gaining attention for its relative ability to tolerate high temperatures and drought conditions compared to other cereal food crops, but yield improvement is stagnated. The newer sources of stress tolerance in finger millet can be obtained through the development of Recombinant Inbred Lines (RIL’s). In the present study, 222 RIL’s (F6) developed for thermotolerance were screened using Temperature induction response (TIR). The study revealed wide variability in the seedling traits such as seedling survival (%), reduction in the shoot, root, and total seedling length (%), as well as the seedling vigour index (SVI). By employing the standardized Z distribution, the RIL’swere categorized into tolerant and susceptible based on the percent seedling survival and percent reduction in recovery growth. Five RIL’s viz. 6.1.11, 6.5.10, 6.12.5, 6.13.8, and 6.20.24 were identified as tolerant while five viz. 6.3.2, 6.4.12, 6.7.2, 6.10.14 and 6.17.8a were recognized as susceptible. The identified RILs can be further used as donor source for crop improvement studies.

Key words : High-temperature; Recombinant inbred lines; Finger millet; Temperature induction response