Screening groundnut genotypes using TIR (Temperature Induction Response) technique for thermotoleranceKRekha RaniauthorPLathaauthorKSujathaauthorR PVasanthiauthorPJanilaauthorRUshaauthorHeat is one of the major abiotic stresses that adversely affect crop production worldwide at different stages of development. Groundnut is a major crop cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical regions where high temperature stress is a serious constraint for its production. In the present study, temperature induction response (TIR) was conducted for screening the tolerant genotypes, where the seedlings were exposed to sublethal temperature from 34ºC-54ºC for 4 hours 30 minutes followed by lethal temperature at 58ºC for 3 hours. From the 100 diverse genotypes screened, 24 showed tolerance to high temperature with mean percent seedling survival of 92%, 30 showed moderate tolerance and 46 were identified as temperature susceptible compared with checks (100% survival). Results suggested that TIR is used to identify stable thermotolerant genotypes and could be explored as donor source useful in breeding programmes. Further work will be focused on the physiological and molecular basis of thermotolerance in selected tolerant and susceptible genotypes for the identification of heat stress tolerant genes which could be useful for engineering plants with improved heat tolerance.Abiotic StressGroundnutGenetics and Genomics2017-02Conference or Workshop Item