abstract
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Chapatti, a flat baked product is prepared from wheat throughout the Indian subcontinent and forms a cheap, primary source of protein and calories. The desired quality characteristics in a chapatti are greater pliability, puffability, soft texture. Wheat variety C 306 is the tall traditional wheat known for its chapatti quality. Later, PBW 175 variety was developed by PAU which had good chapatti quality. However, both these have become susceptible to stripe and brown rusts. Combining high yield potential and disease resistance and retaining the actual chapatti quality is the challenging breeding objective in this era of nutritional awareness. Stripe rust resistant gene Yr40 linked to Lr57 has been introgressed in both C306 and PBW175 individually, retaining the chapatti making parameters. Thus, the major objective was to develop premium chapatti quality wheat variety carrying leaf and stripe rust using co-segregating gene specific markers. Gap created by the non availability of high yielding, disease resistant chapatti quality wheat in Northern India has been filled by wheats grown under rain fed and disease free conditions in Madhya Pradesh owing to their natural environment. Similarly, "Premium Ashirwad atta" is also available in the market. These varieties will be beneficial to the consumer desiring premium chapatti quality wheats at normal prices as compared to almost 3-4 times priced MP wheats or Premium Ashirwad atta being sold at exorbitant prices.