Journal Article

Development of a marker specific for the rice blast resistance gene Pi39 in the Chinese cultivar Q15 and its use in genetic improvement

Hua, Li-Xia, Zhang, Wen-Shuai, Liu, Wei, Liu, Xin-Qiong, He, Xiu-Ying, Lin, Fei, Liang, Li-Qiong, Wang, Ling

2015

Overview

Blast, caused by the ascomycete fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most devastating diseases of rice due to the high variation of the pathogen. Breeding high-yielding rice cultivar with durable resistance to rice blast is a priority in Southern China and in places where rice cultivation is an important branch in farming. Effectiveness and accuracy of resistant cultivar breeding largely depend on the development of markers specific to the target gene. In silico prediction of the resistance (R) Pi39 gene content of the interval was made and hence a candidate gene was identified to develop a perfect insertion-deletion (InDel) based marker for Pi39 gene selection. The Pi39 gene was successfully introgressed in two elite cultivars using both foreground (the InDel) and background (genome-wide microsatellites) genotypic and phenotypic selection. Five selected BC 3 F 3 progeny lines were recovered and showed a high level of blast resistance. At least 97.5% of their genome was inherited from their recurrent parent. The agronomic performance of four lines (D94, D98, D112 and D113) was at least as good as that of their recurrent parent.

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis,Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subject: agronomic traits / Agronomy / biotechnology / blast disease / China / computer simulation / Cultivars / Cultivation / Fungi / Gene deletion / Genetic improvement / Genomes / Grain cultivation / Insertion / introgression / Magnaporthe oryzae / marker-assistant selection / Markers / microsatellite repeats / Microsatellites / pathogens / phenotypic selection / Plant breeding / prediction / Progeny / resistance breeding / resistance genes / rice / Rice blast