Comparative Analysis of the 100 kb Region Containing the Pi-kh Locus Between indica and japonica Rice Lines

We have recently cloned a pathogen inducible blast resistance gene Pi-kh from the indica rice line Tetep using a positional cloning approach. In this study, we carried out structural organization analysis of the Pi-kh locus in both indica and japonica rice lines. A 100 kb region containing 50 kb upstream and 50 kb down- stream sequences flanking to the Pi-kh locus was selected for the investigation. A total of 16 genes in indica and 15 genes in japonica were predicted and anno- tated in this region. The average GC content of indica and japonica genes in this region was 53.15% and 49.3%, respectively. Both indica and japonica sequences were polymorphic for simple sequence repeats having mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, and pentanucleotides. Sequence analysis of the specific blast resistant Pi-kh allele of Tetep and the susceptible Pi-kh allele of the japonica rice line Nipponbare showed differences in the number and distribution of motifs involved in phosphorylation, resulting in the resistance phenotype in Tetep.