Affectionately Dedicated to My husband

My diction doesn’t seem to be rich enough to provide suitable words to articulate my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to Dr. M. V. C. GOWDA, Professor and Head, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, college of agriculture and chairman of my advisory committee for his sustained interest, valuable guidance, constant supervision, vivid encouragement, constructive suggestions and affectionate dealing which enabled me to do the best of my ability during the course of investigation. I wish to express my deep sense of reverence and gratitude to Dr. RAJEEV VARSHNEY, Senior scientist, SP2 leader, GCP, M.S. Swaminathan applied genomics lab, ICRISAT for being co-chairman of my advisory committee. His valuable suggestions and support to pursue my research program at ICRISAT are greatfully acknowledged. It gives me great pleasure to express my heartfelt thanks to Dr. H. L. NADAF Chief Scientific Officer (Plant Science) MARS, UAS, Dharwad and my advisory committee member for providing an opportunity to work in his la