Frequency and Distribution of Microsatellites in the Genome of Filamentous Fungus,Neurospora crassa

A total of 38.0 Mb of publicly available DNA sequence in Neurospora crassa was researched for mono- to hexanucleotide simple sequence repeats (SSR or microsatellite) to determine the type, size and frequency. A total of 14 788 SSRs were observed in the whole genomic DNA sequence, about one every 2.57 kb, with the criteria of SSR length >15 bp and 80% matches. The most abundant microsatellite was trinucleotide repeat, the number was 4 729, followed by hexanucleotide and mononucleotide repeats, the numbers were 2 940 and 2 489 respectively, and the least abundance was dinucleotide repeat, only 691 were found. Among the 10 082 ORFs, 4 094 SSRs were harbored in 2 373 ORF (no intron) of the organism. One thousand and fifty six ORFs harbored only one SSR. Similar with other organisms, tri- and hexanucleotide repeats were predominant in ORFs, 54.1 and 48.8% of tri- and hexanucleotide repeats were distributed in ORF region. The density of these two motifs was overpresented in coding regions, because ORF region and coding region constitutes only 46 and 38.3% of genomic sequence, respectively. Upstream and downstream 300 bp of regulatory regions were high density regions of SSRs, particularly density of pentanucleotide SSR in upstream region was as high as five times of average density in genomic DNA, density of di- and tetranucleotide SSR was also more than two times of average density. The density of penta-, tetra-, di- and mononucleotide SSRs was relatively higher than average density. There were 47 SSRs in mitochondria 64 840 bp DNA sequence, their distribution is similar with genomic DNA sequence. These results suggested that SSRs were clustered in regulatory regions of genomic DNA.

Application of the New Gene Gm6 Against Rice GallMidge in Resistance Breeding Through PCR-BasedMarker Aided Selection

The research results of marker aided selection(MAS)for resistant varieties and lines against rice gall midge Orseolia oryzae Wood-Mason successfully in 1999 - 2002 were reported in the present paper. The molecular markers linked to the gene Gm6 against rice gall midge were used to select and breed the resistant varieties and lines. The RAPD marker OPM06 was used to verify the existence actually of gene Gm6 in ten developed varieties resistant to gall midge such as Duokang1, Duokang2, Kangwen2, Kangwen3, Kang-wen5, Duokangzaozhan, Kangwenqinzhan, which were derived from Daqiuqi. For resistance breeding through PCRbased marker aided selection(MAS), the polymorphisms in the resistant and susceptible parents were i-dentified by RG476/Alu I and RG476/Sca I respectively. The RAPD marker OPM06(1.4 kb)was used to i-dentify 15 new resistance lines from F3 lines of Fengyinzhan1/Daqiuqi in 1999. 21 and 7 resistance lines were selected from F4 and F6 lines of KWQZ/Gui99(restored line of hybrid rice)using RG476/Alu I in 2000-2001 respectively. The Gm6 gene was transferred into the restored line of hybrid rice. In 2001 - 2002, RG214/ Hha I and G214/Sca I were used for selecting 11 and 5 resistance lines from F3 lines of KWQZ/IR56 and AXZ/KWQZ successfully. The application of the resistance gene through PCR-based marker aided selection is a new and effective approach in resistance breeding.