Candidate Gene Analysis to Rice Bacterial Leaf Blight Resistance of Korean Races of Xoo (Xanthomonas oryzae) in Rice Genetic Resources by GWAS Analysis

Bacterial leaf blight (BLB), caused by X. oryzae pv. oryzae(Xoo), is one of the most destructive diseases of rice due to its high epidemic potential. Understanding BLB resistance at a genetic level is important to further improve the rice breeding that provides one of the best approaches to control BLB disease. In the present investigation, a total of 10,000 accessions of rice germplasm were tested to resistance degree of four Korean isolated races (K1, K2, K3 and K3a) of Xoo by bioassay and a diverse 268 accessions was selected to the genome-wide association study (GWAS) using high quality 34,724 SNPs to identify the associated with resistance loci. LOC_Os04g53160 of chromosome 4 was significantly associated with K1 race resistant. LOC_Os11g46230 and LOC_Os11g47150 of chromosome 11 were highly associated with K2 and K3 races as 23.7 and 27.4 of -log(P) value, but K3a resistant loci was weakly associated at LOC_Os03g55270 of chromosome 3. The results of the GWAS validate known gene of BLB resistant and identified novel loci of R genes that provide useful targets for further investigation to help the breeding system and identified gene and QTL provide valuable sources for further functional characterization.