Characterization of Traditional Rice Varieties for Leaf Blast Resistant Genes Pi5, Pi54, Pi9 and Pi2 using Gene Specific Markers

Abstract

Magnaporthe oryzae poses a serious risk to rice growing regions worldwide. To combat this, future breeding efforts that aim to develop resistant varieties will need to identify and screen blast-resistant cultivars from existing germplasms. Thus, present study aimed to identify four major blast resistant genes (Pi54, Pi5, Pi2 and Pi9) in 20 traditional rice varieties using functional and linked markers. Results of the present study identified that fifteen traditional rice landraces were found to possess at least one resistant gene and three traditional landraces (Aanaikomban, Chenellu and Jai Sri Ram) had two resistant genes. These identified traditional rice landraces could be used as promising donor against rice blast disease for future rice breeding programmes to develop superior cultivars.