Development of New InDel Marker to Detect Genotypes of Rf-1a Conferring Fertility Restoration of BT-Type Cytoplasmic Male Sterility in Rice

Restorer line breeding is an important approach to enhance the heterosis and improve the yields of japonica hybrid rice. To improve the selection efficiency of restorer lines for BT-type cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) in japonica rice, a functional marker InDel-Rf-1a based on the difference of nucleotide sequence in Rf-1a locus between BT-type CMS lines and restorer lines was developed to detect the genotypes of different rice materials. Conventional indica rice varieties, restorer and maintainer lines without 574 bp deletion could restore the fertility for BT-type CMS in japonica rice. By contrast, most conventional japonica rice varieties except Aichi 106 and Yijing 12, with genotype of rf-1arf-1a showed the 574 bp deletion maintained sterility for BT-type CMS lines. To further verify the effect of genotyping detection in Rf-1a locus, this marker was also used to amplify the genomic DNA in different japonica rice restorer lines, CMS lines, hybrids and F2 segregation population, and three genotypes in Rf-1a locus could be distinguished distinctly. Therefore, the marker InDel-Rf-1a could be widely used for genetic identification and marker-assisted selection (MAS) in breeding japonica restorer lines.