Identification and molecular tagging of two Arabidopsis resistance genes to Botrytis cinerea

To map Arabidopsis resistance genes to Botrytis cinerea, Arabidopsis Col-0 ecotype resistant to B. cinerea BC18 isolate and Arabidopsis Ler ecotype susceptible to B. cinerea BC18 isolate were crossed. According to the resistant responses of the F₁, BC₁ and F₂ populations to B. cinerea, we identified two genes, named BC1 and BC2, responsible for the resistance of Arabidopsis Ler ecotype to B. cinerea. Through the method of map-based cloning, BC1 was linked to DNA markers CCR1 and DHS1 on the fourth chromosome of Arabidopsis with genetic distances of 1.2 cM and 1.6 cM for CCR1 and DHS1, respectively, and BC2 was linked to DNA markers CA72/NGA151 and NGA106 on the fifth chromosome with genetic distances of 1.4 cM and 2.4 cM for CA72/NGA151 and NGA106, respectively. Our results are beneficial for chromosome walking so that we can obtain the whole gene sequences, which will facilitate the understanding of their roles and manners of resistance to B. cinerea.