Deciphering the cannabis-powdery mildew interactions using genomics

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Plant diseases are responsible for considerable losses each year and threaten global food security. Breeding crop resistance to pathogens is usually considered as the most environmentally friendly method for managing diseases and reducing losses. However, one of the challenges is to ensure that such resistance is effective and durable. The long-term objective of my research program is to improve our fundamental knowledge on plant immunity and microbial virulence, which will help develop new strategies toward durable and sustainable disease resistance in important agricultural crops. Recent advances in genetics and genomics can contribute to unravel the complexity of plant-microbe interactions and decipher the genes and mechanisms that underlie resistance. These represent a game-changing approach that will fundamentally alter the way we generate disease resistant plants. Indeed, such knowledge can greatly benefit crop improvement through better-informed breeding strategies that exploit diverse forms of resistance at different scales, from the genome of a single plant to the plant varieties deployed within a region. In this installment, we aim to dissect the genetic and molecular basis of the cannabis-powdery mildew interaction with the goal of identifying pathogenicity and resistance determinants. We hypothesize that the rapid expansion of cultivated areas of cannabis has had a profound impact on the population structure of powdery mildew, and that the intricate coevolutionary patterns between cannabis and powdery mildew trace back to a myriad of defense mechanisms among cannabis accessions. To address these hypotheses, we will first investigate the population dynamics of cannabis powdery mildew and use a variety of omics approaches to determine the key players of this interaction. This will be accomplished through the research activities proposed in the Discovery Grant: Aim 1 - Pathogenomics of cannabis powdery mildew; Aim 2 - Identification of sources of resistance from a cannabis diversity panel; Aim 3 - Characterization of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying PM resistance. Significance: There is an urgent need for a coordinated effort to quantify the genetic diversity of cannabis, especially with regards to disease resistance. We now have approaches and resources to exploit the vast genetic variation present in the cannabis germplasm and streamline application of this knowledge directly into improvement programs. This will greatly accelerate the development of varieties which are less dependent on the use of pesticides, not only decreasing cultivation costs but also the environmental risks instigated by chemical control. Moreover, our research program represents a unique training opportunity for HQP in both experimental and computational science, which are highly needed skills required to sustain the biosciences sector and will provide excellent preparation for a range of career paths.