Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Early Access

Marker-assisted introgression of turcicum leaf blight (Ht1) resistant gene into northeastern Himalayan region maize landrace

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.8896
Submitted
15 April 2025
Published
15-12-2025

Abstract

The local people of north-eastern Himalayan region (NEHR) cultivate the maize landraces and consume them as food. These landraces possess desirable agronomic traits but are susceptible to turcicum leaf blight (TLB) disease caused by the fungus Exserohilum turcicum. Thus, we aimed to screen maize landraces under field conditions and introgress the Ht1 gene into the susceptible landrace. Screening of four landraces against TLB was conducted under artificially inoculated field conditions during Kharif 2023, with two standard checks. Disease reaction rating on a scale of 1-9 was used to calculate the percent disease index (PDI) values of landraces. Among the four landraces, two - LMC-15 and LMC-16 - were identified as susceptible, with a disease rating of 8, while LMC-4 and LMC-7 received a rating of 6 and were categorized as moderately susceptible. The F1 generation was produced during the spring season of 2024 through a cross between the donor parent BML-6 and the susceptible recurrent parent LMC-15. The true F1 plants were evaluated using a SSR marker umc1042, which is linked to the TLB resistance gene Ht1. Genotyping of 120 F2 plants was performed using the umc1042 SSR marker. This marker exhibited a segregation ratio of 27:61:32 in the F2 population. The chi-square value for the genotype was 0.45, which is below χ2 (p ≤ 0.05) and therefore considered non-significant, indicating a good fit to the expected 1:2:1 ratio. Overall, the findings confirm that MAS is an efficient and reliable approach for introgressing Ht1 into susceptible maize lines.

References

  1. 1. Ansari MA, Prakash N, Kumar A, Jat SL, Baishya LK, Sharma SK, et al. Maize production technology highlighted in North East India. Training Manual RCM (TM)–05. ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Manipur Centre, Lamphelpat, Imphal; 2015.
  2. 2. Natesan S, Singh TS, Duraisamy T, Chandrasekharan N, Chandran S, Adhimoolam K, et al. Characterization of crtRB1 gene polymorphism and β-carotene content in maize landraces originated from North Eastern Himalayan Region of India. Front Sustain Food Syst. 2020;4:78. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00078
  3. 3. Puttarach J, Puddhanon P, Siripin S, Sangtong V, Songchantuek S. Marker-assisted selection for resistance to northern corn leaf blight in sweet corn. SABRAO J Breed Genet. 2016;48(1):72-9.
  4. 4. Hooda KS, Bagaria PK, Khokhar Kaur M, Harleen, Sujay R. Mass screening techniques for resistance to maize diseases. ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, PAU Campus, Ludhiana; 2018. p. 93.
  5. 5. Khatri NK. Influence of temperature and relative humidity on the development of Exserohilum turcicum on maize in Western Georgia. Indian J Mycol Plant Pathol. 1993;23:35-7.
  6. 6. Navarro BL, Campos RA, Gasparoto MC, Tiedemann AV. In vitro and in planta studies on temperature adaptation of Exserohilum turcicum isolates from maize in Europe and South America. Pathogens. 2021;10(2):154. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10020154
  7. 7. Lal. Genetics of Helminthosporium leaf blight resistance in maize. Maize Genetics Prospectus Symposium in the TNAU. Coimbatore; 1991. p. 231-7.
  8. 8. Sivanesan A, Abdullah SK, Abbas BA. Exserohilum curvisporum sp. nov., a new hyphomycete from Iraq. Mycol Res. 1993;97:1486-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0953-7562(09)80222-0
  9. 9. Hooker AL. Helminthosporium turcicum as a pathogen of corn. Post-IAMS Japanese; 1975. p. 115-25.
  10. 10. Gevers HO. A new major gene for resistance to Helminthosporium turcicum leaf blight of maize. Plant Dis Rep. 1975;59:296-9.
  11. 11. Hooker AL. Monogenic resistance in Zea mays L. to Helminthosporium turcicum Pass. Crop Sci. 1963;3(5):381-3. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci1963.0011183X000300050002x
  12. 12. Hooker AL. A second major gene locus in maize for resistance to Helminthosporium turcicum. Crop Sci. 1977;17(1):132-5. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci1977.0011183X001700010035x
  13. 13. Collard BCY, Jahufer MZZ, Brouwer JB, Pang ECK. An introduction to markers, quantitative trait loci mapping and marker-assisted selection for crop improvement: the basic concepts. Euphytica. 2005;142(1-2):169-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-005-1681-5
  14. 14. Hurni S, Scheuermann D, Krattinger SG, Kessel B, Wicker T, Herren G, et al. The maize disease resistance gene Htn1 against northern corn leaf blight encodes a wall-associated receptor-like kinase. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015;112(28):8780-5. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1502522112
  15. 15. Joshi LM, Goel LB, Renfro BL. Multiplication of inoculum of Helminthosporium turcicum on sorghum seeds. Indian Phytopathol. 1969;22:146-8.
  16. 16. Wheeler BEJ. An introduction to plant diseases. London: Wiley and Sons; 1969. p. 374.
  17. 17. Madden LV, Hughes G, Van Den Bosch F. The study of plant disease epidemics. St. Paul (MN): American Phytopathological Society; 2007.
  18. 18. Doyle JJ, Doyle JL. A rapid total DNA preparation procedure for fresh plant tissue. Focus. 1990;12:13-5.
  19. 19. Ogliari JB, Guimaraes MA, Camargo LEA, Schuster I. Genetic variability for resistance to Exserohilum turcicum in tropical maize populations. Euphytica. 2005;142(3):227-35.
  20. 20. Welz HG, Geiger HH. Genes for resistance to Exserohilum turcicum in diverse maize populations. Plant Breed. 2000;119(1):1-14. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0523.2000.00462.x
  21. 21. Yousuf N, Dar SA, Lone AA, Ahanger MA, Dar ZA, Bhat MA, et al. Field screening of maize (Zea mays L.) landraces for resistance against turcicum leaf blight under temperate conditions. Int J Chem Stud. 2018;6(1):333-7.
  22. 22. Meghana SP, Harlapur SI, Patil PV, Kachapur RM. Screening of maize germplasm against turcicum leaf blight of maize caused by Exserohilum turcicum (Pass.) Leonard and Suggs. Environ Ecol. 2022;40(3B):1497-503.
  23. 23. Keerthana D, Haritha T, Sudhir Kumar I, Ramesh D. Field screening of maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes against turcicum leaf blight under artificial conditions. Int J Plant Soil Sci. 2023;35(7):1-11. https://doi.org/10.9734/ijpss/2023/v35i72856
  24. 24. Hooker AL. Additional sources of monogenic resistance in corn to Helminthosporium turcicum. Crop Sci. 1978;18(5):787-8. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci1978.0011183X001800050024x
  25. 25. Hooker AL. Resistance to Helminthosporium turcicum from Tripsacum floridanum incorporated into corn. Maize Genet Coop Newsl. 1981;55:87-8.
  26. 26. Zaitlin D, De Mars S, Gupta M. Linkage of a gene controlling resistance to Exserohilum turcicum (ht1) with molecular markers in maize. Theor Appl Genet. 1992;83(5):531-8.
  27. 27. Zhu M, Ma J, Liu X, Guo Y, Qi X, Gong X, et al. High-resolution mapping reveals a novel QTL and candidate genes associated with resistance to northern corn leaf blight in maize. Front Genet. 2022;13:1038948. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.1038948
  28. 28. Min J, Chunyu Z, Khalid H, Suwen W, Feng L. Pyramiding resistance genes to northern leaf blight and head smut in maize. Int J Agric Biol. 2012;14:430-4.
  29. 29. Naeem S, Tahir M, Khan K, Hassan A, Ahmad R. Morphological and molecular markers based screening of maize hybrids against northern corn leaf blight. Pak J Bot. 2021;53(1):301-8. https://doi.org/10.30848/PJB2021-1(5)

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.