Tagging major quantitative trait loci for sheath blight resistance in a rice variety, Jasmine 85

This study was conducted with a clonal F₂ population of rice from a cross between Jasmine 85, a resistant variety, and Lemont, a susceptible cultivar. The rice plants belonging to each F₂ clone were divided into two plots, which were put in two replicates, respectively. Clonal parents were tested as controls. The plants were inoculated by short toothpicks incubated with RH-9, a virulent isolate of the pathogenic fungus,Rhizoctonia solani, which causes rice sheath blight. The extreme resistant and susceptible clonal lines were selected for construction of resistant and susceptible DNA pools, respectively. A total of 94 polymorphic markers evenly distributed on 12 rice chromosomes were used for bulked segregant analysis, three positive ones were found polymorphic between the two DNA pools, and three major QTLs for sheath blight resistance, Rh-2, Rh-3 and Rh-7, were identified. The three major QTLs were located on chromosomes 2, 3 and 7, and could explain 14.4%, 26.1% and 22.2% of the phenotypic variation.