Genome-wide association study of rice genes and loci conferring resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae isolates from Taiwan.

Background: Rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, is an important rice disease occurring in all rice-growing areas. To manage blast disease effectively and in an environmentally friendly way, it is important to continually discover diverse resistant resources for breeding. In this study, genome-wide association study (GWAS) was used to map genes/loci resistant to rice blast in the open-access rice diversity panel 1 (RDP1), previously genotyped with a 44K single-nucleotide polymorphism array. Two geographically and genetically different M. oryzae isolates from Taiwan, D41-2 and 12YL-DL3-2, were used to challenge RDP1. Infected leaves were visually rated for lesion type (LT) and evaluated for proportion of diseased leaf area (%DLA) by image analysis software.

Results: A total of 32 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified, including 6 from LT, 30 from DLA, and 4 from both LT and DLA. In all, 22 regions co-localized with previously reported resistance (R) genes and/or QTLs, including two cloned R genes, Pita and Ptr; 19 mapped R loci, and 20 QTLs. We identified 100 candidate genes encoding leucine-rich repeat-containing proteins, transcription factors, ubiquitination-related proteins, and peroxidases, among others, in the QTL intervals. Putative resistance and susceptibility haplotypes of the 32 QTL regions for each tested rice accessions were also determined.

Conclusions: By using Taiwanese M. oryzae isolates and image-based phenotyping for detailed GWAS, this study offers insights into the genetics underlying the natural variation of blast resistance in RDP1. The results can help facilitate the selection of desirable donors for gene/QTL validation and blast resistance breeding.