While it is crucial for developing countries like Malaysia to achieve self-sufficiency in rice (Oryza sativa L.), it is equally critical to be able to produce high-quality rice, specifically fragrant rice, which demands are often met through importation. The present study was aimed at developing high-yielding fragrant rice, in a timely and cost-effective manner. A marker-assisted backcross (MABC) approach was optimised to introgress the fragrance gene (fgr) into two high-yielding Malaysian varieties, MR84 and MR219, within two years utilising less than 50 molecular markers. Coupled with phenotypic screening, one single foreground marker (fgr-SNP) and 48 background markers were selected and utilised, revealing recovery of at least 90% of recurrent parent genome (RPG) in merely two backcross generations. Collectively, the yield potential of the developed BC2F2 lines (BLs) was higher (P > 0.05) than the donor parent, MRQ74, and similar (P < 0.05) to both the recurrent parents, MR84 and MR219. In addition, some of the developed BLs showed good grain quality, such as having long grain. We believe that this is the first report comprising the validation and utilisation of the single functional marker system (fgr-SNP) in introgressing the fgr gene into different rice varieties.
Blast caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is a significant disease threat to rice across the world and is especially prevalent in Malaysia. An elite, early-maturing, high-yielding Malaysian rice variety, MR263, is susceptible to blast and was used as the recurrent parent in this study. To improve MR263 disease resistance, the Pongsu Seribu 1 rice variety was used as donor of the blast resistance Pi-7(t), Pi-d(t)1 and Pir2-3(t) genes and qLN2 quantitative trait locus (QTL). The objective was to introgress these blast resistance genes into the background of MR263 using marker-assisted backcrossing with both foreground and background selection.