Characterization and mapping of a lesion mimic mutant in rice （Oryza sativa L.）

A rice initiation-type lesion mimic mutant (lmi) was identified, which was isolated from an indica rice Zhongxian 3037 through γ radiation mutagenesis. Trypan blue staining and sterile culture revealed that the mutant spontaneously developed lesions on the leaves in a developmentally regulated and light-dependent manner. Genetic analysis indicated that the lesion mimic trait was controlled by a single resessive locus. Using public molecular markers and an F2 population derived from lmi and 93-11, we mapped the lmi locus to the short arm of chromosome 8, nearby the centromere, between two SSR markers RM547 and RM331. The genetic distance was 1.2 and 3.2 cM, respectively. Then according to the public rice genomic sequence between the two SSR markers, lmi was further finely tagged by three CAPS markers: C4135-8, C4135-9 and C4135-10. And lmi locus was a co-segregated with marker C4135-10, providing a starting point for lmi gene cloning.