International Journal of Agricultural Science Research Vol. 3(10), pp. 213-221, October 2014 ISSN 2327-3321 ©2014 Academe Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Marker assisted evaluation for resistance to Septoria tritici blotch in Moroccan wheat recombinant inbred lines (RILs)

Diria Ghizlan¹*, Abdelwahd Rabha¹, Labhilili Mustapha¹, Benchaba Mhamed¹, Gaboun Fatima², Arhbal Aziz³ and Ibriz Mohammed⁴

¹INRA, Biotechnology Unit, BP 415 boulevard de la victoire, Rabat, Morocco.

²INRA, Bioinformatic Unit, CRRA Rabat, Morocco.

³Agriculture and Marine Fisheries, Morocco.

⁴Department of Biology, University of Sciences Kenitra, Morocco.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ghizlanediria@gmail.com. Tel: (+212) 662451755.

Accepted 15 October, 2014

Abstract

Septoria tritici blotch (STB), caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola, is the major foliar disease in temperate rainfall Moroccan growing wheat regions. An F9 recombinant inbred population from cross between resistant synthetic hexaploid wheat “syn6” and a susceptible cultivar Mehdia was evaluated for resistance to septoria during three years in Moroccan field conditions at Sidi Allal Tazi and Merchouch stations. 13 SSR markers associated to some Stb genes (Stb1, Stb2, Stb3, Stb4, Stb5, Stb6, Stb8 and Stb14) were applied on this recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population in order to find out the linkage between markers and resistance genes against this disease and to identify which of these known genes are effective. Only Xgwm389 marker linked to Stb2 had discriminate the septoria resistant lines from the susceptible marker. Most RILs that exhibited low S. tritici severity had 150 bp allele as the resistant parent “Syn 6” and the other lines having high disease severity had 133 bp allele present at Vernapolis, the considered carrier of Stb2, at Chinese spring and Mehdia susceptible parent. Suggesting that Stb2 gene is broking and there is another gene closely linked to Stb2 on the short arm of chromosome 3B confers resistance to Syn 6 and RILs population in Gharb region of Morocco.

Key words: Disease resistance genes, Mycosphaerella graminicola, Triticum aestivum, RILs population, SSR markers, Stb genes.