EVALUATION AND VALIDATION OF BC3F4 POPULATION FROM

BACKCROSSING PROGRAM CARRYING BLAST RESISTANCE, Pi9 GENE

WITH SSR MARKER.

1
Siti Nor Aziemah Mohamad, 1Ahmad Sofiman Othman, 2Siti Nor Suha Misman, and
2
Mohamad Bahagia Ab Ghaffar.
1
Pusat Pengajian Sains Kajihayat, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.
2
Pusat Penyelidikan Padi dan Tanaman Indistri (RI), Malaysian Agricultural Research and
Development Institute (MARDI), 13200 Kepala Batas, Seberang Perai Utara, Penang,
Malaysia.

ABSTRACT

Rice blast caused by Pyricularia oryzae is a devastating threat to rice industry production

around the world including Malaysia. Incorporation of broad spectrum resistance gene into

cultivar is the most economic, effective and environmental friendly method to control blast

disease. Among identified and cloned blast resistance gene, Pi9 which exists in chromosome

6 belong to nucleotide binding site (NBS) and leucine rich repeat (LRR) proteins family

confer having broad spectrum resistance toward blast. Therefore, in present study a set of

BC3F4 population from backcrossing program between rice varieties IRTP21683 with MR219

are validate carrying Pi9 gene using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) marker. Both parents

and BC3F4 population is evaluated for resistance level using artificial inoculation against most

dominance pathotype from MARDI Seberang Perai Collection. Inoculation is carried out by

spraying conidial suspensions on BC3F4 test line, both parents and control line, MR211 in

green house under control condition. The disease scoring are carried 7 to 8 days after

inoculation based on the Standard Evaluation System (SES) of the International Rice

Research Institute (IRRI). The BC3F4 population that carrying desired Pi9 gene will have

high resistance level toward rice blast disease.