Rapid Development of Homozygous Transgenic Rice using Anther Culture Harboring Rice chitinase Gene for Enhanced Sheath Blight Resistance.

Transgenic rice was developed from both calli and immature embryos of popular cultivar ‘Swarna’ with a rice chitinase gene (chi11) by particle gun bombardment. Homozygous dihaploid transgenics were produced in less than a year through the anther culture of primary transgenics. Stable integration and expression of the chi11 transgene were confirmed by Southern and western analyses, respectively of primary as well as anther culture-derived dihaploid transgenics. The homozygous transgenics with functional transgene and varied levels of chitinase activity showed enhanced resistance to sheath blight fungus. The bioassay data were correlated with the molecular and biochemical results.