Accelerated development of rice stripe virus-resistant, near-isogenic rice lines through marker-assisted backcrossing

The development of new improved varieties is one of the major goals of plant breeding. Concomitantly, the demand for stable, eco-friendly, and high-quality rice production is constantly increasing. However, most farmers prefer to cultivate familiar rice varieties developed more than 10 years ago to minimize economic risk. A strategy is needed to develop rice varieties without the limitations of the preferred old varieties. Here, we tested the rapid development of near isogenic lines (NILs) using a rapid generation advance system together with marker-assisted backcrossing to overcome the shortcomings of parental materials. For this purpose, we chose rice stripe virus (RSV) susceptible variety Unkwang and RSV resistant variety Haedamssal as experimental materials. First, we backcrossed and screened BC1F1 and BC2F1 plants having similar agronomic traits as Unkwang and the heterozygous genotype for RSV resistant specific marker InDel7 from Haedamssal. Secondly, the genetic background of 11 BC2F1 plants was identified with 73 KASP markers; plants of line YR32548-8 showed 84.5% of recovery of the recurrent parent genome. Among 28 BC2F2 plants, YR32548-8-16 was the line that showed maximum recovery of the recurrent parent genome (96.2%) while effectively introgressed with RSV-resistance loci on chromosome 11. Finally, we selected line YR32548-8-16 as an NIL showing an RSV resistant phenotype and similar agronomic traits to Unkwang. This fast breeding approach will be useful in rice breeding programs for the improvement of varieties preferred by farmers for their stress tolerance, yield, or quality.