Identification and Characterization of Pathotypes Responsible for an Emerging Bakanae Disease of Rice in India.

The bakanae disease of rice, or foolish seedling disease, is a well-known pathogen infecting rice hosts. Several studies have characterized isolates collected from distant geographical regions and within similar geographical areas for secondary metabolite production, population structure, and diversity analysis, but none have attempted to characterize the isolates for virulence in a differential set of rice genotypes. Based on the disease response, a set of five rice genotypes with differing resistance levels were selected as a differential set for further characterization of the pathogen.

Genetic Analysis and Molecular Mapping of the Quantitative Trait Loci Governing Low Phytic Acid Content in a Novel LPA Rice Mutant, PLM11.

Breeding rice varieties with a low phytic acid (LPA) content is an effective strategy to overcome micronutrient deficiency in a population which consume rice as a staple food. An LPA mutant, Pusa LPA Mutant 11 (PLM11), was identified from an ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)-induced population of Nagina 22. The present study was carried out to map the loci governing the LPA trait in PLM11 using an F population derived from a cross between a high phytic acid rice variety, Pusa Basmati 6, with PLM11.

Discovery of a Novel Induced Polymorphism in 1 Gene Governing Semi-Dwarfism in Rice and Development of a Functional Marker for Marker-Assisted Selection.

The semi-dwarfing allele, has been widely utilized in developing high-yielding rice cultivars across the world. Originally identified from the rice cultivar Dee-Geo-Woo-Gen (DGWG), , derived from a spontaneous mutation, has a 383-bp deletion in the gene. To date, as many as seven alleles of the gene have been identified and used in rice improvement, either with a functional single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), with insertion-deletions (InDels), or both.

Re-sequencing Resources to Improve Starch and Grain Quality in Rice.

Next-generation sequencing can identify differences in the rice genome that explain the genetic basis of grain quality variation. Differences in rice grain quality are mainly associated with differences in the major component of the grain, starch. Association of rice quality variation with rice genome variation can be conducted at the gene or whole-genome level.