The present work is not essentially a backcross breeding program aimed at development of near isogenic lines. However, Krishna Hamsa was the common background into which several genes/QTL were targeted from multiple donors and considering the morphological similarity between 27 ILs and Krishna Hamsa, background selection was done retrospectively. BGS validated our observations on morphological similarity. The same has been discussed in the 5th para under ‘discussion’. Also results on BGS have been presented under subsection 2.3 of results with data on polymorphic markers for BGS in supplementary table S8.
Indicate DFF = days to fifty percent flowering.