Development of activation-tagged gain-of-functional mutants in indica rice line (BPT 5204) for sheath blight resistance

Background The development of sheath blight (ShB) resistance varieties has been a challenge for scientists for long time in rice. Activation tagging is an efficient gain-of-function mutation approach to create novel phenotypes and to identify their underlying genes. In this study, a mutant population was developed employing activation tagging in the recalcitrant indica rice ( Oryza sativa L.) cv. BPT 5204 (Samba Mahsuri) through activation tagging. Methods and results In this study, we have generated more than 1000 activation tagged lines in indica rice, from these mutant population 38 (GFP − RFP + ) stable Ds plants were generated through germinal transposition at T 2 generation based on molecular analysis and seeds selected on hygromycin (50 mg/L) containing medium segregation analyses confirmed that the transgene inherited as mendelian segregation ratio of 3:1 (3 resistant: 1 susceptible). Of them, five stable activation tagged Ds lines (M-Ds-1, M-Ds-2, M-Ds-3, M-Ds-4 and M-Ds-5) were selected based on phenotypic observation through screening for sheath blight (ShB) resistance caused by fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani (R. solani), . Among them, M-Ds-3 and M-Ds-5 lines showed significant resistance for ShB over other tagged lines and wild type (WT) plants. Furthermore, analysed for launch pad insertion through TAIL-PCR results and mapped on corresponding rice chromosomes. Flanking sequence and gene expression analysis revealed that the upregulation of glycoside hydrolase -OsGH or similar to Class III chitinase homologue ( LOC_Os08g40680 ) in M-Ds-3 and a hypothetical protein gene ( LOC_Os01g55000 ) in M-Ds-5 are potential candidate genes for sheath blight resistance in rice. Conclusion In the present study, we developed Ac-Ds based ShB resistance gain-of-functional mutants through activation tagging in rice. These activation tagged mutant lines can be excellent sources for the development of ShB resistant cultivars in rice.