Developing gene-tagged molecular marker for functional analysis of OsZIP10 metal transporter gene in rice

Abstract

The physiological, genetic and molecular mechanisms of metal homeostasis related genes need to be characterized from a bio-fortification perspective and should be well integrated with the breeding processes. Out of 43 genes related to metal homeostasis, transcript of OsZIP10 gene found to be associated with grain zinc content in rice. OsZIP10 gene belongs to ZIP family and is identified to encode a plasma membrane-localized zinc transporter in rice. In the present study, through allele mining identified a 10 bp insertion/deletion (InDel) polymorphism in the 5’upstream region of the gene. Targeting the InDel region five gene tagged markers were developed, named ZP1, ZP2, ZP3, ZP4, ZP5. The markers were validated in a set of selected rice genotypes contrasting for grain zinc content. Single marker analysis for allelic variation revealed significant association of markers with the phenotypic data (R2 value 0.39). The gene-tagged markers developed in the present study would be useful in breeding for enhanced grain zinc content in rice.