Diversity analysis of kinase like disease resistance gene analogues in sugarcane

Abstract

Red rot disease is a severe disease of sugarcane that affects the crop productivity in sugarcane growing countries. In this study, resistance gene analogues (RGAs) similar to kinase resistance protein isolated from sugarcane red rot resistant, moderately resistant and susceptible genotypes were compared with wall associated receptor like kinases of various plants. The non-RD serine/threonine kinase regions were noticed in all identified sugarcane RGAs. The amino acid identity percentage among resistant, moderately resistant and susceptible sugarcane RGAs was more than 90% which indicated that conserved kinase region is present in these RGAs. However, when compared with other monocots and dicots, the identified RGAs showed much diversity in kinase region. As the RGAs of sugarcane are of non-RD serine/threonine kinase that are typically associated with immune responses in plant, the findings may be extremely useful that can be used as RGAs based marker development for resistance breeding in sugarcane.