FIRST PROJECT REPORT

We have characterized the isolates of M. oryzae from three rice growing areas of Spain.

The preliminary analyses show that:
1) Populations from the South, seem genetically different from populations from Central and North regions of Spain.
2 ) Most of the isolates sampled belong to genetic groups already identified in Europe, but
3) new groups are also sampled.

The level of partial resistance to blast is relatively high in most commercial varieties as revealed by the field and inoculation trials conducted.

Transcriptomics data has been analyzed to identify potential candidate genes to measure preformed partial resistance. Among thousands of genes, we identified 20 that are potentially interesting to measure performed partial resistance in rice. But, we did not observed any correlation between gene expression and partial resistance.

In order to detect association between molecular markers and resistance to Magnaporthe, a QTL analysis is underway. A first step has been to find polymorphic markers between a set of resistant and, susceptible but well adapted, rice varieties. More than one hundred of SSRs markers, distributed along the whole rice genome, have been tested in 12 varieties. After screening one segregating populations for the polymorphic markers and determining their level of resistance in inoculation and fields trials, the development of linkage maps and detection and characterization of QTLs involved in blast resistance are in progress.