Chinese scientists clone resistant allele of rice STV11
DATE:2014-09-16 SOURCE:Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, MOA
A team of Chinese scientists led by Dr. Wan Jianmin from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences successfully cloned the resistant allele of rice STV11 (STV11-R) and bred a series of high-yield and high-quality rice cultivars with rice stripe virus (RSV) resistance.Their findings are published in Nature Communications, an online scientific journal, on Sept. 10, 2014.
The study shows that STV11, which confers durable resistance to RSV, encodes a sulfotransferase catalysing the conversion of salicylic acid (SA) into sulphonated SA (SSA), leading to increased SA accumulation in the RSV-infected plants and inhibition of viral replication.
In its research, the team developed a technical system for identification of RSV-resistance, and bred resistant cultivars against RSV by studying rice germplasm, gene sequence and gene discovery. The development of resistant rice cultivars is recognized as an effective solution to RSV control in rice production, particularly in Japonica rice production.
The findings also suggest effective methods for breeding pest/disease-resistant rice cultivars by using molecular marker technology, and shed new insights into plant viral defense mechanisms.
RSV causes one of the most serious viral diseases of rice (Oryza sativaL.). In severe cases, it can cause complete failure in rice production. Up to 80% of the rice fields in Eastern China, Japan and the Republic of Korea were affected by this disease. Therefore, the research findings are of great significance to tackling the RSV challenge in Japonica rice producing areas in southern China.