Engineering broad‐spectrum disease‐resistant rice by editing multiple susceptibility genes

Plant diseases reduce crop yields and threaten global food security, making the selection of disease-resistant cultivars a major goal of crop breeding. Broad-spectrum resistance (BSR) is a desirable trait because it confers resistance against more than one pathogen species or against the majority of races or strains of the same pathogen. Many BSR genes have been cloned in plants and have been found to encode pattern recognition receptors, nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat receptors, and defense-signaling and pathogenesis-related proteins. In addition, the BSR genes that underlie quantitative trait loci, loss of susceptibility and nonhost resistance have been characterized. Here, we comprehensively review the advances made in the identification and characterization of BSR genes in various species and examine their application in crop breeding. We also discuss the challenges and their solutions for the use of BSR genes in the breeding of disease-resistant crops.

Download Full-text

Involvement of nonhost resistance genes in disease resistance plausible for future crop improvement

10.7287/peerj.preprints.27722 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Eram Sultan ◽

Kalpana Dalei ◽

Prashant Singh ◽

Binod Bihari Sahu

Keyword(s):

Disease Resistance ◽

Broad Spectrum ◽

Crop Production ◽

Crop Improvement ◽

Durable Resistance ◽

Resistance Mechanisms ◽

Phytophthora Sojae ◽

Nonhost Resistance ◽

R Genes ◽

Disease Resistant

A plant species is infected by handful of pathogenic organism despite the fact that it is constantly exposed to innumerable pathogens. The chemical anti-bio agents exploited against these pathogens were harmful to environment and human health as well. So the only alternative way is to grow disease resistant varieties of crops by introducing resistant (R) genes. However, new pathogenic races evolve constantly and are notorious for their ability to withstand race specific resistance mediated by R-genes . Plants deploy robust, broad-spectrum and durable resistance mechanisms called nonhost resistance (NHR) against most pathogenic organisms. Such disease resistance mechanisms are nonspecific and effective against all nonhost or non-adaptive pathogens. The NHR defence response includes production of phytoalexins and other antimicrobial compounds, hypersensitive response by rapid localized cell death, deposition of callose and expression of pathogenesis related genes at the site of infection that restricts further growth of pathogen. Although NHR has immense potential to improve crop production in agriculture, very little is known about the mechanism of NHR and its genetic pathways at molecular level. Detail knowledge about the NHR genes from a nonhost plant and engineering the NHR gene into the host plant will be helpful in making broad-spectrum and durable disease resistant crops. In this mini review, we report the list of NHR genes and their function against various phytopathogens. We further report a method to identify or map putative NHR gene/s in Arabidopsis against soybean pathogen Phytophthora sojae nonhost with a goal to improve disease resistance in crop species.

Download Full-text

Towards Engineering Broad-Spectrum Disease-Resistant Crops

Trends in Plant Science ◽

10.1016/j.tplants.2020.02.012 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (5) ◽

pp. 424-427 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jingjing Tian ◽

Guoyong Xu ◽

Meng Yuan

Keyword(s):

Broad Spectrum ◽

Disease Resistant

Download Full-text

Involvement of nonhost resistance genes in disease resistance plausible for future crop improvement

10.7287/peerj.preprints.27722v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Eram Sultan ◽

Kalpana Dalei ◽

Prashant Singh ◽

Binod Bihari Sahu

Keyword(s):

Disease Resistance ◽

Broad Spectrum ◽

Crop Production ◽

Crop Improvement ◽

Durable Resistance ◽

Resistance Mechanisms ◽

Phytophthora Sojae ◽

Nonhost Resistance ◽

R Genes ◽

Disease Resistant

A plant species is infected by handful of pathogenic organism despite the fact that it is constantly exposed to innumerable pathogens. The chemical anti-bio agents exploited against these pathogens were harmful to environment and human health as well. So the only alternative way is to grow disease resistant varieties of crops by introducing resistant (R) genes. However, new pathogenic races evolve constantly and are notorious for their ability to withstand race specific resistance mediated by R-genes . Plants deploy robust, broad-spectrum and durable resistance mechanisms called nonhost resistance (NHR) against most pathogenic organisms. Such disease resistance mechanisms are nonspecific and effective against all nonhost or non-adaptive pathogens. The NHR defence response includes production of phytoalexins and other antimicrobial compounds, hypersensitive response by rapid localized cell death, deposition of callose and expression of pathogenesis related genes at the site of infection that restricts further growth of pathogen. Although NHR has immense potential to improve crop production in agriculture, very little is known about the mechanism of NHR and its genetic pathways at molecular level. Detail knowledge about the NHR genes from a nonhost plant and engineering the NHR gene into the host plant will be helpful in making broad-spectrum and durable disease resistant crops. In this mini review, we report the list of NHR genes and their function against various phytopathogens. We further report a method to identify or map putative NHR gene/s in Arabidopsis against soybean pathogen Phytophthora sojae nonhost with a goal to improve disease resistance in crop species.

Download Full-text

A new roadmap for the breeding of disease-resistant and high-yield crops

Stress Biology ◽

10.1007/s44154-021-00023-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yiming Wang ◽

Soumeng Dong

Keyword(s):

Disease Resistance ◽

Epigenetic Regulation ◽

Broad Spectrum ◽

Food Demand ◽

High Yield ◽

Significant Challenge ◽

Disease Resistant ◽

Global Population ◽

Fine Tune ◽

Molecular Framework

AbstractBreeding of disease-resistant and high-yield crops is essential to meet the increasing food demand of the global population. However, the breeding of such crops remains a significant challenge for scientists and breeders. Two recent discoveries may help to overcome this challenge: the discovery of a novel molecular framework to fine-tune disease resistance and yields that includes epigenetic regulation of antagonistic immune receptors, and the discovery of a Ca2+ sensor-mediated immune repression network that enables the transfer of subspecies-specific and broad-spectrum disease resistance. These breakthroughs provide a promising roadmap for the future breeding of disease resistant crops.

Download Full-text

Comparative transcriptomics reveal conserved modules of plant defence against different pathogens in Strawberry

10.1101/2020.06.07.138420 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Raghuram Badmi ◽

Arsheed Hussain Sheikh

Keyword(s):

Broad Spectrum ◽

Plant Defence ◽

Transcriptional Response ◽

Individual Plant ◽

Disease Resistant ◽

Resistant Varieties ◽

Core Set ◽

Pathogenesis Related ◽

Grey Mold ◽

Plant Pathogen Interactions

AbstractStrawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) is an economically important high-value crop that is susceptible to three most devastating pathogens with different lifestyles – a necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea causing grey mold, a hemibiotrophic oomycete Phytophthora cactorum causing crown/root rot, and a biotrophic fungus Podosphaera aphanis causing powdery mildew. Studies on individual plant-pathogen interactions are only sufficient for developing disease resistant strawberry varieties to a particular pathogen. However, each of these pathogens have the potential to co-infect strawberry at a given point of time. Therefore, understanding how these pathogens manipulate strawberry’s defences and how it responds to these pathogens is essential for developing broad-spectrum disease resistant varieties. Here, in the diploid model Fragaria vesca, we performed comparative transcriptome analysis between each of these pathogen infections to identify 501 Common Responsive (CoRe) genes targeted against these pathogens. Furthermore, about 80% of these CoRe set are upregulated upon infection by all three pathogens indicating a similar transcriptional response of F. vesca independent of pathogen’s lifestyle. These upregulated CoRe set include genes from well-known defence responsive pathways such as calcium and MAP kinase signalling, WRKY transcription factors, pathogenesis-related allergen genes and hormone and terpene biosynthetic genes. These novel insights into F. vesca’s defences might serve as a basis for engineering plants with broad spectrum resistance.

Download Full-text

A Strengths-Based Approach to Autism: Neurodiversity and Partnering With the Autism Community

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/persp2.sig1.56 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 56-68 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Amy L. Donaldson ◽

Karen Krejcha ◽

Andy McMillin

Keyword(s):

Broad Spectrum ◽

First Language ◽

Family Members ◽

Community Identity ◽

Speech Language Pathologists

The autism community represents a broad spectrum of individuals, including those experiencing autism, their parents and/or caregivers, friends and family members, professionals serving these individuals, and other allies and advocates. Beliefs, experiences, and values across the community can be quite varied. As such, it is important for the professionals serving the autism community to be well-informed about current discussions occurring within the community related to neurodiversity, a strengths-based approach to partnering with autism community, identity-first language, and concepts such as presumed competence. Given the frequency with which speech-language pathologists (SLPs) serve the autism community, the aim of this article is to introduce and briefly discuss these topics.

Download Full-text