Identification and Marker Assisted Introgression of Blast Resistance Gene into the Parental Line of Rice Hybrid

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important and widely consumed staple food crops in the world. This crop severely affected by fungal disease called rice blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae (synonymous: Pyricularia oryzae) is most destructive diseases and often causes severe reduction of about 80% of rice yield under conducive conditions. One dominant (Pi_z) was introgressed into TNAU CMS 2B through marker assisted breeding. This study identified 20 gene introgressed individuals in the early segregated materials through foreground selection. The identified heterozygous individuals with the high yielding background forwarded to next breeding cycles to identify Pi_z gene in homozygous conditions, and thus could be used as a valuable genetic resource for future rice breeding programme.