Establishment and Application of a Multiplex PCR System for the Detection of Blast Resistance Genes Pi-ta and Pi-b in Rice.

Rice blast is one of the important diseases in major rice producing areas of China. The main blast resistance genes Pi-ta and Pi-b showed broad-spectrum and durable resistance to rice blast in many rice growing areas of China, which have been widely utilized in rice breeding and commercial production, in this study, on the basis of detection arid verification of the genotypes of 22 rice varieties harboring known blast resistance genes (Pi-ta and Pi-b) and blast susceptibility genes (pi-ta and pi-b), two multiple PCR systems for these genes were established by using the functional markers of blast resistance genes Pi-ta and Pi-b as well as blast susceptibility genes pi-ta and pi-b, respectively. Specifically, multiple PCR system I could simultaneously detect blast resistance genes Pi-ta and Pi-b, while system II could detect simultaneously blast susceptibility genes pi-ta arid pi-b. Iri addition, the genotypes of 336 high generation breeding materials were detected with these two multiple PCR systems. The results were highly consistent with those of conventional single mark detection, indicating that these two multiplex PCR systems were stable, reliable and time-saving. The established multiplex PCR systems may serve as a rapid and efficient method to identify and screen rice germplasm resources and can be applied in marker-assisted selection to polymerize multiple genes for blast resistance in rice breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]