Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) is the second most widely cultivated species of millet, especially in East Asia and is a tractable experimental model crop for studying functional genomics of millets. However, insufficient researches had been conducted about the foxtail millet germplasm and is significantly impeding its genetic improvement. We attempted to develop EST-derived-SSR (eSSR) markers and utilize them in genetic comparison of germplasm and transferability. A total of 66,027 foxtail millet EST sequences and 42,754 genomic sequence were deduced transcriptom. Approximately 42,000 single tone contigs were generated using DNAstar 5.0 software for redundancy minimization. Nearly 33% of the 14,012 unigenes contained SSRs, but primers were designed for a total of 314 microsatellites concentrating with more than 24 bp of repeats. A total of 314 primers were successfully designed with more than 24 bp of repeats. From these microsatellites, 56 primer pairs were showed polymorphism with over than 15 bp differences among 96 accessions collected from different countries. Polymorphic information content (PIC) value ranged from 0.020 to 0.700 with an average of 0.381 indicating moderate level of informativeness within these EST-SSRs markers. The EST-SSR markers developed in this study will serve as a useful source for genetic studies, such as genetic variability, transferability, association mapping, and molecular breeding

Rice blast (Magnaporthe oryza B.) is one of the most widespread and devastating diseases of rice. Screening of valuable genetic resources harboring resistance genes is one of the most efficient approaches against blast disease. Because the bioassay to rice blast in the field shows high variations, this study has performed to provide DNA profiles in the accessions of diverse countries using major blast resistant genes linked markers, identified and mapped in different genotypes of rice. Because durable resistance to blast is controlled by a combination of major resistance genes, we surveyed the distribution of blast resistant genes in the 1,500 accessions using major 12 blast resistance genes linked markers. These resistant genes found that the frequency distribution of Pi-39 (66.9%), Pik-m (41.9%), Pit (40.5%), Pii (21%), Pib (19.3%), Pi-d(t)2 (12.7%), but Pita, Pita/Pita-2, Pik, Piz-t, Pi5 genes were identified in less than 10% frequency. Most of accessions contain from 1 to 4 different resistant genes. Pi39 and Pik-m genes amplified in the 69.1% and 51.7% among 356 Korean accessions, Pi39 (79.6%) and Pib (55.8%) in 113 China, Pit (80.6%) and Pib (32%) in 103 Philippines, respectively. In this study, we evaluated the blast resistance degree and the information about the distribution of rice blast resistant genes in rice germplasm. This study will help to develop effective strategies for managing rice blast disease in rice germplasm.

Pod dehiscence (PD), defined as the opening of pods along both the dorsal and ventral sutures, causes the seed to shatter in the field before harvesting and results in loss of seed yields. However, breeding for resistance to PD is difficult due to the complicated genetic behavior and environmental interaction. The objective of the present research was to analyze the genetic behavior of PD for improving the breeding efficiency of resistance to PD in soybean. PD after oven-drying the sampled pod at 40~circC for 24 hours was the most reliable to predict the degree of PD tested in the field. Keunolkong, a dehiscent parent, was crossed with non-dehiscent parents, Sinpaldalkong and Iksan 10. Using their F1~;and~;F2 seeds, PD was measured after oven drying the pod at 40~circC for 24 hours. The gene conferring PD behaved in different manners depending on the genetic populations. In the Keunolkong~times Sinpaldalkong population, PD seemed to be governed by single major recessive gene and minor genes, while several genes were probably involved in the resistance to pod dehiscence in the Keunolkong~times Iksan 10 population. Heritability for PD estimated in F2 population showed over 90~% in the two populations. High heritability of PD indicated that selection for resistance to PD should be effective in a breeding program. In addition, genetic mapping of quantitative locus (QTL) for PD in both populations may reveal that genes conferring PD are population-specific