Screening and identification of new sources of resistance to sheath blight in wild rice accessions Bashyal B. M.*, Rawat Kirti, Singh Dhiraj, Krishnan S. Gopala1, Singh A. K.1, Singh N. K.2, Aggarwal Rashmi Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110 012 1Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110 012 2National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110 012 *Corresponding author's e-mail: bishnumayabashyal@gmail.com
Online published on 12 September, 2017. Abstract A total of 218 wild rice accessions including O. rufipogon and O. nivara were evaluated under artificial inoculation for resistance to sheath blight disease for two years under field conditions. The germplasm identified as resistant to sheath blight were further evaluated through artificial inoculation for an additional year under glass house conditions. Based on three years of testing, two Oryza rufipogon accessions, namely, IC336719 and IC336721 were identified as resistant to sheath blight disease. In vitro characterization of resistant genotypes revealed that the size of sheath blight lesion formation was small along with comparatively lesser number of infection cushions and penetration pegs as compared to the susceptible checks. The O. rufipogon accessions identified in the present study are very valuable genetic resource, which can be utilized in the development of introgression lines and mapping QTL(s) governing resistance to sheath blight of rice. Top Keywords Rice, sheath blight, resistance, Rhizoctonia solani, Oryza rufipogon. Top |