Superior japonica rice variety YJ144 with improved rice blast resistance, yield, and quality achieved using molecular design and multiple breeding strategies

Abstract

Pib, and Pid2, all of which afford broad-spectrum resistance to blast. A collection of 91 japonica rice germplasms with similar ecological characteristics to YF47 were screened, and Wuyunjing 27 (WYJ27) with Pita and Pib alleles and P135 with the Pid2 allele were identified. Furthermore, the corresponding positive Pita, Pib, and Pid2 alleles were transferred into YF47 using single, mutual, and backcrosses, together with molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) and anther culture technology. These genetic materials, carrying one, two, or three functional alleles, were generated within 3 years, and compared to YF47, they all showed improved resistance to naturally inoculated rice blast. Further improved lines (IL) 1 to 5 (all containing Pita, Pib, and Pid2 alleles) were evaluated for yield performance, and when no fungicide was applied, all lines except IL-4 showed increased traits compared with those of YF47. IL-5, renamed Yanjing 144 (YJ144), showed yield increases in the Liaoning province regional variety comparison test and superior appearance quality compared to YF47. Our work provides a molecular design strategy for pyramiding multiple beneficial genes to rapidly improve rice blast resistance, yield, and quality using multiple breeding strategies.

A Novel PCR-Based Functional Marker of Rice Blast Resistance Gene Pi25

“…Tetra-primer ARMS-PCR marker, a SNP-based allelic-specific marker, is simple and cost-effective [29]. Hence, it has been successfully utilized in rice MAS breeding, such as rice blast resistance, herbicide resistance, and rice quality [30][31][32]. However, the usual tetra-primer ARMS-PCR has a laborious process for optimization [33].…”

Development and Application of Intragenic Markers for 14 Nitrogen-Use Efficiency Genes in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

“…Introgression of elite alleles or haplotypes of these cloned genes into the background of GJ cultivars could be a promising way to improve NUE of GJ cultivars. Marker-assisted selection has been proved to be an effective method in genetic improvement of rice cultivars, of which the premise is the development of effective molecular markers for target genes ( Wang et al, 2017 ; Jiang et al, 2019 ; Mao et al, 2021 ).…”

Rapid and Directional Improvement of Elite Rice Variety via Combination of Genomics and Multiplex Genome Editing

“…Since the end of last century, with the development of modern genetics and molecular biology, traditional breeding methods have made great progress . Especially with the development of maker-assisted selection (MAS) in breeding, rice varieties with improved grain yield, eating quality, and disease resistance have been widely cultivated. − Meanwhile, along with the establishment of genetic transformation, transgenic technology has been rapidly applied in rice breeding by directly introducing an exogenous T-DNA into the rice genome. − However, the strict governmental regulations and adverse public opinions concerning the safety of these genetically modified (GM) products seriously affected the application of transgenic breeding …”