BREAD: Molecular and Genomic Strategies to Engineer Durable and Sustainable Disease Resistance to Bacterial Blight of Cassava

PI: Brian Staskawicz（加州大学伯克利分校）合作PI: Wilhelm Gruissem（瑞士苏黎世联邦理工学院），Adriana Bernal（哥伦比亚洛斯安第斯大学）由轴索黄单胞菌引起的木薯细菌性枯萎病。manihotis （Xam）对非洲和南美洲的一些发展中国家的木薯植物构成严重威胁。该项目将首先关注Xam的基因组特征，对存在于这种重要细菌病原体的天然分离株中的细菌效应（毒力）蛋白进行测序、注释和表征。快速和廉价地确定Xam自然野分离株的基因组序列的能力将为病原体毒力的进化和自然种群中效应基因的等位基因多样性提供新的见解。Xam的基因组组合将用于鉴定木薯野生种群的新抗病来源。先前的工作已经证明，PthB效应物存在于所有病原体菌株中，并且是病原体引起疾病所必需的。该项目的工作将设计木薯植物来识别PthB蛋白，以提供有效和持久的抗病能力。该项目的结果有望为木薯这种非常重要的细菌病原体提供持久的抗性来源。此外，该项目产生的知识将极大地造福非洲和拉丁美洲的木薯研究人员。该项目将对木薯育种产生重大影响，从而使拉丁美洲、非洲和亚洲发展中国家的小农农业受益。基因组学、植物-微生物相互作用和木薯转化方面的专家与在发展中地区研究这种重要作物的科学家之间的合作，将在开发抗这种疾病和其他疾病的新品种方面产生协同效应。此外，两名哥伦比亚研究生将在这个项目下接受培训。在Staskawicz和Gruissem实验室对哥伦比亚科学家进行尖端技术培训将极大地有利于哥伦比亚的农业科学。获取项目成果Xam的基因组序列将在NCBI和一个专门的项目网站上提供，该网站将为该项目创建，以促进参与小组之间的结果共享，并为研究界迅速传播可靠的数据。该项目的网站（可从http://plantbio.berkeley.edu/~stask访问）将包括为基因组组装和注释而开发的生物信息学算法的描述，所分析的细菌菌株的信息，以及项目中开发的结构和木薯植物的描述。所有这些资源都将免费提供给研究界。

PI: Brian Staskawicz (University of California Berkeley)Co-PIs: Wilhelm Gruissem (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), Adriana Bernal (Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia)Cassava bacterial blight, incited by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam) is a serious threat to cassava plants in several developing countries in both Africa and South America. This project will first focus on the genome characterization of Xam to sequence, annotate, and characterize the constellation of bacterial effector (virulence) proteins that are present in naturally occurring field isolates of this important bacterial pathogen. The ability to rapidly and inexpensively determine the genome sequence of natural field isolates of Xam will provide novel insights into the evolution of pathogen virulence and the allelic diversity of effector genes that occur in natural populations. The genome assemblies of Xam will be employed to identify new sources of disease resistance in wild populations of cassava plants. Previous work has demonstrated that the PthB effector is present in all strains of the pathogen and is essential for the pathogen to cause disease. Work in this project will engineer cassava plants to recognize the PthB protein to provide effective and durable disease resistance. Results from the project are expected to provide a durable source of resistance to this very important bacterial pathogen of cassava. In addition, the knowledge generated in this project will greatly benefit cassava researchers in both Africa and Latin America.The project will have a major impact in cassava breeding and will hence benefit smallholder agriculture in developing countries from Latin America, Africa and Asia. The collaboration between experts in genomics, plant-microbe interactions and cassava transformation with scientists who work on this important crop in developing regions will have synergistic effects in the deployment of new resistant varieties to this and other diseases. Furthermore, two Colombian graduate students will be trained under this project. The training of Colombian scientists in cutting edge technology at the Staskawicz and Gruissem laboratories will greatly benefit Colombian agricultural science. Access to project outcomesGenomic sequences of Xam will be made available at NCBI and at a dedicated project website that will be created for this project to both facilitate the sharing of results between the groups involved, and the prompt dissemination of reliable data for the research community. The project web site, which will be accessible from http://plantbio.berkeley.edu/~stask, will include a description of bioinformatic algorithms developed for the assembly and annotation of the genomes, information on the bacterial strains analyzed, and description of the constructs and cassava plants developed in the project. All of these resources will be made freely available to the research community.