Pyramiding of four resistance genes of bacterial blight in Tapaswini, an elite rice cultivar, through marker-assisted selection

Breeding for resistance against Bacterial blight (BB), a destructive disease in rice, is a major challenge because of the rich diversity of the pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Three resistance genes i.e. xa5, xa13 and Xa21 were transferred from IRBB 60 through marker-assisted backcross breeding to supplement the Xa4 gene present in Tapaswini, an elite cultivar having a wide coverage. The precise transfer was aided through effective foreground selection using STS markers RG 556, RG 136 and pTA248 linked to the three target genes, respectively. In the screening assays, the gene pyramids having four genes exhibited higher level of resistance against the disease. Background selection based on morphological and grain quality traits and SSR markers led to the recovery of 85-96 % of the recurrent parent genome in the gene pyramids. Multi location evaluation conducted over a two year period at several hotspot locations of bacterial blight in India has resulted in identification and release of CRMAS 2622-7-6 (IT-6), a promising gene pyramid as improved Tapaswini. The high levels of resistance exhibited in the improved genotype without any yield penalty and its similarity to the recurrent parent provides a successful demonstration of the potential of MAS in pyramiding genes as well as the recovery of the parental genome with high accuracy.