Rice Blast Resistance of Transgenic Rice Plants with Pi-d2 Gene

Resistance to rice blast of transgenic rice lines harboring rice blast resistance gene Pi-d2 transformed from three different expression vectors of pCB6.3kb, pCB5.3kb and pZH01-2.72kb were analyzed. Nine advanced-generation transgenic rice lines with Pi-d2 gene displayed various resistance to 39 rice blast strains, and the highest disease-resistant frequency reached 91.7%. Four early-generation homozygous transgenic lines with Pi-d2 gene exhibited resistance to more than 81.5% of 58 rice blast strains, showing the characteristic of wide-spectrum resistance. The transgenic embryonic calli selected by the crude toxin of rice blast fungus showed that the callus induction rate of immature embryo from transgenic rice plants decreased as the concentration of crude toxin in the culture medium increased. When the concentration of crude toxin reached 40%, the callus induction rate of immature embryo from transgenic lines was 49.3%, and that of the receptor control was 5%. The disease incidence of neck blast of the transgenic rice lines in fields under induction was 0% to 50%, indicating that the rice blast resistance of transgenic rice lines is much higher than that of the receptor control.