Identification of bacterial leaf blight (Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae) resistant genes in rice plants and its validation through molecular markers Kushwaha Ujjawal Kumar Singh1,2,*, Deo Indra1 1Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India 2National Plant Breeding and Genetics Research Centre, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal *Email: kushujjwal@gmail.com
Online Published on 19 February, 2024. Abstract Bacterial leaf blight (Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae) is a devastating rice disease in India. The chemical control method has been found expensive, so the most potential way to control this disease is by deployment of BLB resistant genes in elite rice variety which could protect the crop from disease severity and boost yield abundantly. Thus an experiment was conducted to study the inheritance of bacterial leaf blight resistance in F2 population of Pant Basmati 2 × BBL-180-5-1-4-1 from 2016-2018. The F1 and F2 populations were grown in subsequent years and phenotypic screening was done during most tillering stage of F2 plants after artificial inoculation of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. For molecular study, about 1-2 gram leaf samples were taken from each tagged F2 plants and used for DNA extraction. Chi-square test results were found non-significant indicating the observed and expected value were nearly same. The F2 plants segregated by 3:1 at phenotypic and 1:2:1 at genotypic level following pattern of Mendelian law of inheritance and indicated the resistant genes were monogenic in nature. Only 11 plants were found resistant, 34 moderately resistant, 9 moderately susceptible and 13 susceptible at both phenotypic and genotypic level. Race specific gene linked primers detected Xa4, Xa5, Xa10, Xa13, and Xa21 genes in resistant plants of F2 population. These resistant plants with higher yield could be further screened to develop a variety. Incorporation of these genes either single or in multiple could protect elite rice varieties in multi-environment without compromising yield. Top Keywords Bacterial leaf blight, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, Rice, Genetics. Top |