Discovery of Potential Molecular Markers for Northern Corn Leaf Blight in Maize

Maize is an important food crop in sub Saharan Africa as it serves as a staple food source for more than 200 million people. Challenges in maize production include infection by diseases. Northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) thrives in humid areas with a cool to moderate temperature ranges, such as experienced in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands in South Africa. Although integrated crop management practices to control the disease do exist, resistant genotypes offer the most effective control method. Four major dominant resistance genes have been identified to date that offer qualitative resistance namely Ht1, Ht2, Ht3 and HtN. The Ht1 gene maps to bin 2.07 on chromosome 2, Ht2  to bin 8.05 and HtN to 8.06 both on chromosome 8. The objective was to determine whether SSR markers mapped to the various bins can be used as gene tags for the Ht locus.