Identification of Microsatellite (SSR) and RAPD Markers Linked to Rice Blast Disease Resistance gene in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Marker Assisted Introgression of Resistance Genes and Phenotypic Evaluation Enabled Identification of Durable and Broad-Spectrum Blast Resistance in Elite Rice Cultivar, CO 51

Across the globe, rice cultivation is seriously affected by blast disease, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae. This disease has caused heavy yield loss to farmers over the past few years. In this background, the most affordable and eco-friendly strategy is to introgress blast-resistant genes from donors into elite rice cultivars. However, it is not only challenging to evolve such resistance lines using conventional breeding approaches, but also a time-consuming process. Therefore, the marker-assisted introduction of resistance genes has been proposed as a rapid strategy to develop durable and broad-spectrum resistance in rice cultivars. The current study highlights the successful introgression of a blast resistance gene, i.e., Pi9, into CO 51, an elite rice cultivar which already has another resistance gene named Pi54. The presence of two blast resistance genes in the advanced backcross breeding materials (BC2F2:3) was confirmed in this study through a foreground selection method using functional markers such as NBS4 and Pi54MAS. The selected positive introgressed lines were further genotyped for background selection with 55 SSR markers that are specific to CO 51. Consequently, both Pi9 as well as Pi54 pyramided lines, with 82.7% to 88.1% of the recurrent parent genome recovery, were identified and the selected lines were evaluated under hotspot. The analysis outcomes found that both the lines possessed a high level of resistance against blast disease during the seedling stage itself. In addition to this, it was also noticed that the advanced breeding rice lines that carry Pi9 + Pi54 were effective in nature and exhibited a higher degree of resistance against blast disease compared to the lines that were introgressed with a single blast resistance gene. Thus, the current study demonstrates a rapid and a successful introgression and pyramiding of two blast resistance genes, with the help of markers, into a susceptible yet high-yielding elite rice cultivar within a short period of time. Those gene pyramided rice lines can be employed as donors to introgress the blast-resistant genes in other popular susceptible cultivars.

A review of microsatellite markers and their applications in rice breeding programs to improve blast disease resistance

Over the last few decades, the use of molecular markers has played an increasing role in rice breeding and genetics. Of the different types of molecular markers, microsatellites have been utilized most extensively, because they can be readily amplified by PCR and the large amount of allelic variation at each locus. Microsatellites are also known as simple sequence repeats (SSR), and they are typically composed of 1-6 nucleotide repeats. These markers are abundant, distributed throughout the genome and are highly polymorphic compared with other genetic markers, as well as being species-specific and co-dominant. For these reasons, they have become increasingly important genetic markers in rice breeding programs. The evolution of new biotypes of pests and diseases as well as the pressures of climate change pose serious challenges to rice breeders, who would like to increase rice production by introducing resistance to multiple biotic and abiotic stresses. Recent advances in rice genomics have now made it possible to identify and map a number of genes through linkage to existing DNA markers. Among the more noteworthy examples of genes that have been tightly linked to molecular markers in rice are those that confer resistance or tolerance to blast. Therefore, in combination with conventional breeding approaches, marker-assisted selection (MAS) can be used to monitor the presence or lack of these genes in breeding populations. For example, marker-assisted backcross breeding has been used to integrate important genes with significant biological effects into a number of commonly grown rice varieties. The use of cost-effective, finely mapped microsatellite markers and MAS strategies should provide opportunities for breeders to develop high-yield, blast resistance rice cultivars. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge concerning the linkage of microsatellite markers to rice blast resistance genes, as well as to explore the use of MAS in rice breeding programs aimed at improving blast resistance in this species. We also discuss the various advantages, disadvantages and uses of microsatellite markers relative to other molecular marker types.

Yellow lupin (Lupinus luteus L.) transcriptome sequencing: molecular marker development and comparative studies

Background

Yellow lupin (Lupinus luteus L.) is a minor legume crop characterized by its high seed protein content. Although grown in several temperate countries, its orphan condition has limited the generation of genomic tools to aid breeding efforts to improve yield and nutritional quality. In this study, we report the construction of 454-expresed sequence tag (EST) libraries, carried out comparative studies between L. luteus and model legume species, developed a comprehensive set of EST-simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, and validated their utility on diversity studies and transferability to related species.

Results

Two runs of 454 pyrosequencing yielded 205 Mb and 530 Mb of sequence data for L1 (young leaves, buds and flowers) and L2 (immature seeds) EST- libraries. A combined assembly (L1L2) yielded 71,655 contigs with an average contig length of 632 nucleotides. L1L2 contigs were clustered into 55,309 isotigs. 38,200 isotigs translated into proteins and 8,741 of them were full length. Around 57% of L. luteus sequences had significant similarity with at least one sequence of Medicago, Lotus, Arabidopsis, or Glycine, and 40.17% showed positive matches with all of these species. L. luteus isotigs were also screened for the presence of SSR sequences. A total of 2,572 isotigs contained at least one EST-SSR, with a frequency of one SSR per 17.75 kbp. Empirical evaluation of the EST-SSR candidate markers resulted in 222 polymorphic EST-SSRs. Two hundred and fifty four (65.7%) and 113 (30%) SSR primer pairs were able to amplify fragments from L. hispanicus and L. mutabilis DNA, respectively. Fifty polymorphic EST-SSRs were used to genotype a sample of 64 L. luteus accessions. Neighbor-joining distance analysis detected the existence of several clusters among L. luteus accessions, strongly suggesting the existence of population subdivisions. However, no clear clustering patterns followed the accession’s origin.

Conclusion

L. luteus deep transcriptome sequencing will facilitate the further development of genomic tools and lupin germplasm. Massive sequencing of cDNA libraries will continue to produce raw materials for gene discovery, identification of polymorphisms (SNPs, EST-SSRs, INDELs, etc.) for marker development, anchoring sequences for genome comparisons and putative gene candidates for QTL detection.