Leveraging Genomics Resources and Wild Species of Tomato to Identify New Sources of Disease Resistance

Pi：Alan Collmer(康奈尔大学)Copis：张军非、Gregory Martin和Sorina Popescu(博伊斯·汤普森植物研究所)，Bryant Adams(威尔斯学院)，Magdalen Lindeberg(康奈尔大学)和Dilip Panthee(北卡罗来纳州立大学山地园艺研究和推广中心)这个项目旨在通过了解和操纵参与病原菌感知和防御激活的复杂蛋白激酶网络来提高番茄的抗病能力。免疫相关的激酶系统将用来自模式细菌病原体紫杉假单胞菌PV的两类分子来探测。番茄DC3000：通过植物细胞表面的激酶感受到的免疫激发子，以及病原菌注射到植物细胞中扰乱激酶信号从而抑制免疫的效应物。该项目开发了番茄和病原体的基因组资源，以及野生番茄物种免疫的自然变异。将使用各种方法来全面识别和生化探索免疫相关的激酶。这些包括基于RNA测序的转录分析(以识别由病原体激发子上调的激酶基因)和功能蛋白质微阵列(以识别与病原体分子相互作用的激酶)。该项目将揭示感知细胞外病原体信号的激酶还是那些在内部激活防御系统的激酶在自然发生的优越耐药性中更重要。这些信息将指导提高番茄对细菌性斑点病和可能的其他疾病的抗性的策略。预期结果包括对植物中免疫相关激酶系统运作的基本见解，提高抗病能力的新番茄育种系，以及一项涉及基于分子植物-病原体相互作用的游戏的推广活动。农作物容易受到细菌和许多其他微生物病原体的影响，由此产生的疾病往往很难控制。该项目的更广泛影响包括可能适用于许多作物和病原体类别的抗病新方法。其他更广泛的影响包括几项外联活动，最引人注目的是开发一款教育视频游戏。越来越多的关于植物和病原体之间“游戏式”分子相互作用的知识将被用来指导一款游戏的开发，这款游戏将吸引学生，可能还有更广泛的公众参与有关进化、植物生物学、发病机制和农业的课程。这将是一场战略/资源游戏，融合了部署攻击和防御分子的成本和好处。这款游戏将基于广泛可用的Adobe Flash平台。此外，该项目将继续完善和支持通过康奈尔生物教师研究所分发的High School Connect实验室模块。假单胞菌-植物相互作用网站(http://pseudomonas-syringae.org)，)与SOL基因组学网络(http://solgenomics.net))和番茄功能基因组学数据库(http://ted.bti.cornell.edu)，)相互链接，将向公众提供所有项目生成的数据和生物资源，以及游戏和其他外联资源。

PI: Alan Collmer (Cornell University)CoPIs: Zhangjun Fei, Gregory Martin, and Sorina Popescu (Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research), Bryant Adams (Wells College), Magdalen Lindeberg (Cornell University) and Dilip Panthee (North Carolina State University Mountain Horticultural Research & Extension Center)This project is aimed at improving disease resistance in tomato by understanding and manipulating the complex network of protein kinases involved in pathogen perception and defense activation. The immunity-associated kinase system will be probed with two classes of molecules from the model bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000: elicitors of immunity perceived by kinases at the surface of plant cells, and effectors injected by the pathogen into plant cells to disrupt kinase signaling and thereby suppress immunity. The project exploits genomic resources for tomato and the pathogen, as well as natural variation in the immunity of wild tomato species. A variety of approaches will be used to comprehensively identify and biochemically explore immunity-associated kinases. These include RNA sequencing-based transcriptomic analyses (to identify kinase genes upregulated by pathogen elicitors) and functional protein microarrays (to identify kinases that interact with pathogen molecules). The project will reveal whether the kinases that perceive extracellular pathogen signals or those that function internally to activate defenses are more important in naturally occurring superior resistance. This information will guide strategies for improving tomato resistance to bacterial speck and possibly other diseases. Expected outcomes include fundamental insights into the operation of the immunity-associated kinase system in plants, new tomato breeding lines with improved disease resistance, and an outreach activity involving a game based on molecular plant-pathogen interactions. Crop plants are susceptible to bacteria and many other microbial pathogens, and the resulting diseases are often difficult to control. Broader impacts of this project include new approaches to disease resistance that may be applicable to many crops and pathogen classes. Additional broader impacts include several outreach activities, most notably, development of an educational video game. Growing knowledge of the "game-like" molecular interactions between plants and pathogens will be used to guide development of a game that will engage students and possibly the broader public in lessons addressing evolution, plant biology, pathogenesis, and agriculture. This will be a strategy/resource game incorporating the costs and benefits of deploying attack and defense molecules. The game will be based on the widely available Adobe Flash platform. In addition, the project will continue to refine and support the High School Connect laboratory modules that are distributed through the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers. The Pseudomonas-Plant Interaction website (http://pseudomonas-syringae.org), which is interlinked with the Sol Genomics Network (http://solgenomics.net) and the Tomato Functional Genomics Database (http://ted.bti.cornell.edu), will provide public access to all project generated data and biological resources, as well as to the game and other outreach resources.