Drought is one of the major constraints affecting rice (Oryza sativa L.) productivity and production. Conventional breeding is leading to slow progress in developing drought tolerant varieties. In this context, mapping consistent major effect QTLs and unraveling molecular basis of those QTLs will pave way for deployment of those QTLs into breeding applications. Out of more than 2500 drought tolerance related QTLs, hardly 5 to 10 QTLs have been put into breeding applications due to larger QTL window, lack of tightly linked markers and lack of knowledge on candidate genes underlying QTLs. In this present study, in silico analysis was carried out to characterize a major effect QTL qDTY 1.1 region on chromosome 1 for its gene content, drought responsiveness of genes in the QTL window and metabolic functions. Out of 352 genes residing in the qDTY 1.1 window, 50% of the genes were found to be drought responsive. Bioinformatics search identified precise drought responsive expression pattern of 100 genes in the QTL window. Fifty seven genes were found to be up regulated and forty three genes were found to be down regulated. The qDTY 1.1 region is found to contain 23 drought responsive transcription factors such as WRKY, bZIP, NAC, AP2 and C2H2. These drought responsive genes are confirmed for the possession of drought responsive cis elements like DRE, ABRE, MYB and MYC.

Inthisunpredictableclimaticscenario,increasingcropproductivityunderlow water availability is the foremost challenge. The crops are further seriously affected,andtheyieldsaredrasticallyreducedduetoelevatedtemperature, greenhousegases,andhumidityduringthewater stressperiod.Toensure food security in the coming decades, scientists have summoned to increase thehigh-quality foodwiththeseclimaticvagaries. Thoughseveralagronomic and management strategies were proposed to mitigate the water stress, genetic improvementof cropswithimproveddroughttoleranceis the simple, sustainable and affordable option. Nevertheless, identification and molecular understandingoftheappropriatebreedingtraits thatcanalleviatetheimpact of water stress on crop plants are the trickiest part ofthis strategy. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.)is gaining its importance in water stress tolerance plant breeding, as it has several clearly defined drought-tolerant component traits that promote productivity underlow water environments. The genomics and phenomics information generated in S. bicolor would immensely help breeding plants resilientto thechallenges of a water scarcity. This paper describes themolecularmechanismsofdroughttoleranceusing sorghum bicoloras amodel and howthis information canbeextrapolatedto breed better cultivars in other crops.