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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stuttgart, Arkansas » Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #351053
Title: Development of selectable marker-free cisgenic rice plants expressing a blast resistance gene Pi9

Author
item TAMANG, TEJ MAN - Kansas State University
item PARK, JUNGEUN - Kansas State University
item KAKESHPOUR, TAYEBEH - Kansas State University
item VALENT, BARBARA - Kansas State University
item Jia, Yulin
item WANT, GUO-LIANG - The Ohio State University
item PARK, SUNGHUN - Kansas State University

Submitted to: World Congress on In Vitro Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/12/2018
Publication Date: 6/1/2018
Citation: Tamang, T., Park, J., Kakeshpour, T., Valent, B., Jia, Y., Want, G., Park, S. 2018. Development of selectable marker-free cisgenic rice plants expressing a blast resistance gene Pi9. World Congress on In Vitro Biology. Volume 54. Page 544.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The selectable markers, like antibiotic and herbicide resistance genes, are very practical in developing transgenic plants. However, some consumers have concerns about the use of such genes in commercial crops because of the perceived potential hazards to human health and the environment. Here, we report the successful incorporation of a rice blast disease resistance gene, Pi9, into an elite US rice variety via a breeding strategy known as cisgenesis with no evidence of a selectable marker gene in the final product. A co-transformation system eliminated the hygromycin resistance-encoding gene as a selection marker from the cisgenic rice line. Out of 18 cisgenic lines, we found only one line to be successfully co-transformed with Pi9. We analyzed fifty individual plants at the T1 generation after selfing the T0 cisgenic line and found four individual rice plants containing the Pi9 gene and were verified to lack the hygromycin gene. The cisgenic rice plants demonstrate that transgenic lines can be developed to possess novel beneficial genes like disease resistance but lacking any trace of a selectable marker gene.