ARS | Publication request: Establishment of new rice disease nurseries in Texas

Submitted to: Texas Experiment Station Field Day Handout
Publication Type: Experiment Station
Publication Acceptance Date: May 30, 2010
Publication Date: July 8, 2010
Repository URL: http://www://beaumont.tamu.edu/eLibrary/Newsletter/2010_Highlights_in_Research.pdf
Citation: Zhou, X.G., Tabien, R.E., Jia, Y., Mcclung, A.M., Mccauley, G., Liu, G., Vawter, J. 2010. Establishment of new rice disease nurseries in Texas. Texas Experiment Station Field Day Handout. Texas rice Special Section XVII.

Technical Abstract: Genetic resistance is the most effective and economical method to manage rice diseases. However, high levels of resistance to sheath blight, narrow brown leaf spot, and bacterial panicle blight are often not readily available in the leading, high-yielding varieties. Texas producers are in need of new varieties resistant to these major diseases, especially to multiple diseases. In an effort to expand the on-going disease screening that is conducted on the station for blast and sheath blight disease by USDA-ARS, the Rice Plant Pathology Team at Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Beaumont has initiated a new disease screening program by establishing new disease nurseries at multiple locations. The goal of this program is to increase our capabilities to search for new sources of resistance, to breed for new resistant varieties, and to assist in varietal recommendations for Texas rice producers. Two disease nurseries were established in 2010, one at Eagle Lake and the other at Beaumont. These locations are representative of two different environments in the Texas Rice Belt. The nursery at Eagle Lake is evaluating 186 breeding lines and varieties included in the 2010 Uniform Rice Regional Nursery (URRN). The nursery at Beaumont contains 68 varieties and lines focused on current and new varieties, potential releases, the Texas preliminary and advanced elite lines in the URRN. The primary diseases screened include sheath blight, bacterial panicle blight, narrow brown leaf spot, and brown leaf spot. While the Eagle Lake’s nursery evaluates disease reactions only on the main crop, the Beaumont’s nursery evaluates both main and ratoon crops. Sheath blight and bacterial panicle blight are artificially inoculated into plots to enhance disease development while other diseases utilize natural infections. Additionally, in collaboration with scientists at USDA-ARS in Arkansas, a third disease nursery was established at Beaumont in 2010 to identify and map resistance genes against narrow brown leaf spot, one of the most important rice diseases in Texas, Louisiana, Asia and Latin America. This study contains 233 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross of the susceptible cv. Lemont and the resistant cv. Jasmine 85. This research was funded, in part, by the Texas Rice Research Foundation