Direct seeding of rice (DSR) is increasingly being practiced in both rainfed and irrigated areas because of labour shortage for transplanting and dwindling freshwater resource. However, poor crop establishment under DSR remains a major obstacle under adverse effects of climatic condition due to lack of germination ability under anaerobic condition necessitates developing multiple stress tolerant varieties. A potted experiment was carried out in the net house of the Plant Breeding Unit, TRRI, Aduthurai in 2020 to screen and evaluate the performance of diverse rice genotypes for anaerobic germination ability with a view to select the suitable genotypes for multiple stress tolerance (drought and anaerobic germination) that will fit into the existing niche in the DSR. The aim of this experiment is to identify short duration genotypes with early vigour and potential to germinate under anaerobic condition. Among the twenty five genotypes screened for anaerobic germination and subjected to cluster analysis showed two genotypes viz., TKM 5 and Norungan which recorded more than 70 % germination grouped in cluster II of total four clusters with increased seedling vigour index. Other notable differences like absence of coleoptile emergence and coleoptile elongation were observed in the drought tolerant donor Apo and submergence tolerant donor FR13A. These results indicate that success of genotype for anaerobic germination mainly depends on the physiological and biochemical mechanism behind coleoptile emergence and coleoptile elongation under deprived oxygen condition.

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