NLR_NLR-ID power · NLR-ID diversity, mechanism and functionality upon transfer between species
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-05-01 → 2020-04-30
- EU contribution
- €195,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
NLR-ID diversity, mechanism and functionality upon transfer between species
"Problem being addressed: Cereal rust diseases cause major losses in wheat and barley, but rust fungi do not infect rice. Norman Borlaug famously noted that if we could understand the mechanisms why rice resists rusts, we might be able to transfer the rust resistance of rice into wheat. The key goal of this project is to discover the basic knowledge that might enable wheat resistance to rust by testing if rice NLR/NLR-ID pairs might confer non-host resistance in barley and wheat. Why important for society: The work supported by my MSCA fellowship will open up a major conceptual advance. Furthermore, the work will enable to connect fundamental insights on the molecular basis of ""non-host"" disease resistance with agricultural biotechnology. Overall objectives: Objective 1. Detailed annotation and reconstruction of NLR-ID genes and gene pairs in Oryza species. Objective 2. Determine whether rice IDs in NLR-ID genes interact with wheat pathogen effectors. Objective 3. Transform rice NLR/NLR-ID pairs identified in objective 2 into barley, and assay non-host resistance mediated by these rice NLR-IDs to rusts and other pathogens."
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Plant and animal innate immune systems detect pathogen infection by both cell-surface PRR (pattern recognition receptor) and intracellular NLR (nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat) immune receptors, and activate effective defences. Transfer of cell surface receptors between plant families can enhance disease resistance, but intracellular receptors are often non-functional when transferred to different families. This ""restricted taxonomic functionality"" may arise from a requirement for an appropriate helper or partner NLR. Some NLRs carry Integrated Domains (IDs) that serve as “baits” that detect the action of pathogen effector proteins, thus enabling pathogen recognition. NLR-ID proteins require for function a helper NLR, usually closely linked as a head-to-head gene pair. Some NLR/NLR-ID pairs confer resistance to diverse pathogens when transferred as a unit between plant families. For example, Arabidopsis RPS4/RRS1, when transferred as a unit, confers recognition of bacterial and fungal pathogens in Solanaceae and cucurbit plants. This project is based on the hypothesis that NLR/NLR-ID pairs from one species can detect effectors that target that class of ID from a pathogen of any species. Rice is completely resistant to fungal rusts of wheat and barley. Many NLR-IDs are present in rice but not in other Poaceae. My goals are to: (i) use DNA sequence capture and bioinformatics to discover the full NLR/NLR-ID pair repertoires of diverse rice genotypes; (ii) investigate rice IDs interactions with effectors from wheat and barley pathogens; and (iii) transfer gene pairs to barley, maximizing the diversity of IDs in these pairs, and assess transgenic lines for novel resistance to barley diseases. The outcomes of this interdisciplinary Fellowship will provide profound insights into NLR/NLR-ID diversity in plants, into the diversity of domains that are effector targets, and into the molecular basis of ""non-host"" disease resistance.""
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE SAINSBURY LABORATORY · NorwichCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union