Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) is the most damaging rice-infecting virus in Africa. However, few sources of high resistance and only a single major resistance gene, RYMV1, are known to date. We screened a large representative collection of African cultivated rice (Oryza glaberrima) for RYMV resistance. Whereas high resistance is known to be very rare in Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa), we identified 29 (8%) highly resistant accessions in O. glaberrima. The MIF4G domain of RYMV1 was sequenced in these accessions. Some accessions possessed the rymv1-3 or rymv1-4 recessive resistance alleles previously described in O. glaberrima Tog5681 and Tog5672, respectively, and a new allele, rymv1-5, was identified, thereby increasing the number of resistance alleles in O. glaberrima to three. In contrast, only a single allele has been reported in O. sativa. Markers specific to the different alleles of the RYMV1 gene were developed for marker-assisted selection of resistant genotypes for disease management. In addition, the presence of the dominant susceptibility allele (Rymv1-1) in 15 resistant accessions suggests that their resistance is under different genetic control. An allelism test involving one of those accessions revealed a second major resistance gene, i.e., RYMV2. The diversity of resistance genes against RYMV in O. glaberrima species is discussed in relation to the diversification of the virus in Africa.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.