In silico analysis of disease resistance and defence-related genes for a major sheath blight qShb 9-2 QTL in rice

Abstract

Aims: Sheath blight disease (Rhizoctonia solani) is an important rice disease that causes heavy yield losses in rice annually. To date, no rice variety has been found to be completely resistant to this disease. The most desirable approach for the management of sheath blight disease is to introgress genes with major and durable resistance into the rice genome. Therefore, this study aims to identify disease resistance and defence genes within qShb 9-2, a major QTL found within moderately resistant rice population via in silico analysis. Methodology and results: The sequences of tightly linked markers of qShb 9-2 from GRAMENE database was used to derive the 10.24 Mbp QTL region that contains 1581 genes according to MSU Rice Genome Annotation Project database. BLAST results showed that 11.4% of these genes were transposable elements which may be involved in gene duplication. Through Blast2GO, fifty-four (2.9%) defence-related genes were annotated within this QTL and can be classified into 5 major defence mechanisms. Further, fifty (2.7%) disease resistance genes were identified in qShb 9-2 based on the presence of NB-ARC, LRR-receptor kinase, Ser/Thr protein kinase and protein kinase domains. Lastly, directed acyclic graphs showing the interaction between all the disease resistance and defence-related genes were generated. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: The presence of these genes indicates that qShb 9-2 region may contribute towards the defence against sheath blight disease. By deciphering the gene landscape within the QTL, it may be possible to further fine map the QTL into a smaller region for QTL pyramiding in breeding programmes. The resistance and defence genes are also a source for genetic engineering studies and a good source for marker development.