"Towards understanding the non-host resistance to Phytophthora diseases"

 Host: Paul Birch

Venue: NSR, James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie

This seminar is fully  funded by external sources.

All Welcome

Abstract

Crop diseases cause severe yield and economic losses. Deploying plant resistance genes is a sustainable method to protect crops against various diseases. However, the limited gene pools of many crops often lack sufficient resistance genes, making the wild relatives of crop plants valuable sources for these genes. Previously, using the wild Solanaceae species Solanum americanum and the potato late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans as a model, we developed a high-throughput pipeline for R gene mining. This approach led to the successful cloning of several Rpi (Resistance genes against Phytophthora infestans) genes, including Rpi-amr1, Rpi-amr3, Rpi-amr4, R04373, and R02860, along with their corresponding Avr effectors Avramr1, Avramr3, Avramr4, PITG_04373, and PITG_02860 from P. infestans. To extend this methodology to combat other oomycete diseases, such as pepper Phytophthora blight (P. capsici) and tobacco black shank (P. parasitica), we have collected and assessed a large collection of wild Solanaceae species, and we are pursuing novel resistance genes from these wild plants. This work will accelerate the cloning of R genes from wild plants and contribute to the development of broad-spectrum and durable Phytophthora-resistant crops.