자포니카 벼로의 내염성 유전자(Saltol QTL) 도입을 위한 분자마커의 활용 검토

Improving salt tolerance is an important goal in rice breeding to maintain global food production by expanding arable land to salt-affected area. As rice is one of the few crops that can be grown in salt-affected soils due to its ability to grow well in standing water, developing salt tolerant rice varieties would be an effective strategy for utilizing salt-affected soils, such as reclaimed land, for food production. In this study, we established a reliable salt tolerance screening method at the rice seedling stage, which allows a more reliable selection of salt tolerant rice compared to previous methods. Using the improved screening method, we selected promising rice breeding lines possessing Saltol, a promising QTL previously confirmed for salt tolerance. We also evaluated the previously reported molecular markers for Saltol QTL to facilitate marker-assisted selection. In the cross combination of Pokkali/HR28867 and Saltol STL/Jopyeong, we selected 5 markers (SKC1, RM10748, Pect4, RM10793, and RM7075) and 4 markers (SKC1, RM10748, RM10793, and RM7075), respectively, which can be used for early selection of salt tolerant lines. The breeding lines selected through this study could provide useful materials for enhancing salt tolerance in japonica rice, and molecular markers selected for Saltol QTL could reduce the time and effort required for evaluating salt tolerance through phenotypic screening.