BREAD: Engineering Novel Resistance against Fungal and Oomycete Pathogens in Developing Country Crop Plants

主要研究者：布雷特泰勒（弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学）CoPI：肖顺元（马里兰州大学生物技术研究所）和马克·吉尔提南（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）合作者：布莱恩·贝利（美国农业部-农业研究所可持续多年生作物实验室，贝尔茨维尔，马里兰州）发展中国家的小农农业特别容易受到真菌和卵菌疾病的影响，这是由于缺乏当地育种计划、热带气候、丰富的昆虫媒介，杀真菌剂的成本高，难以获得，以及缺乏农民教育。非洲和南美洲的小农生产了95%以上的可可豆，为数百万可可豆种植者及其家属提供了经济利益，以及重要的生态效益，如雨林保护。真菌和卵菌病害破坏了南美洲和西非的可可生产，使农民人口流离失所，并导致保护可可树的雨林遭到破坏，转而有利于大规模的开放农田。该项目将以可可为初始目标，测试两种保护发展中国家作物免受广谱卵菌和真菌病原体侵害的新方法。第一种方法涉及使用RPW8将抗微生物蛋白质靶向称为吸器的病原体进食结构，RPW8是一种对这些进食部位具有天然亲和力的拟南芥蛋白质。第二种方法涉及阻断病原体分泌到宿主细胞中以抑制植物宿主免疫系统的毒力蛋白（效应蛋白）的进入。最有效的策略将首先使用快速生长的拟南芥和番茄植物进行鉴定，然后在caco.Broader影响：将在该项目中进行测试的新技术可能适用于对发展中国家非常重要的一系列非常广泛的作物疾病。大面积主食作物如水稻和小麦的最具破坏性的疾病，以及对小农重要的作物，如山药、木薯、花生、珍珠粟、小米、高粱、玉米、马铃薯、豆类和豇豆的许多最具限制性的真菌和卵菌病害，都可能适用这种方法。该项目包括发展中国家科学家的访问、在厄瓜多尔举行的座谈会以及与可可生产国科学家的定期交流。 将通过项目网站（可通过https：//www.vbi.vt.edu/faculty/research_groups/brett_tyler访问）和出版物传播项目成果以及获取包括DNA构建体和种质在内的生物资源的途径。

PI: Brett Tyler (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)CoPIs: Shunyuan Xiao (University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute) and Mark Guiltinan (Pennsylvania State University)Collaborator: Brian Bailey (USDA-ARS Sustainable Perennial Crops Lab, Beltsville, Maryland)Small-holder agriculture in developing countries is exceptionally susceptible to fungal and oomycete disease due to lack of local breeding programs, tropical climate, abundant insect vectors, cost of and poor access to fungicides, and lack of farmer education. Small-holder farmers in Africa and South America are responsible for more than 95% of cacao production, providing economic benefits to millions of cacao farmers and their dependents, as well as important ecological benefits such as rain-forest preservation. Fungal and oomycete diseases have devastated cacao production in South America and West Africa, dislocating populations of farmers and resulting in destruction of the rain-forest sheltering the cacao trees in favor of large-scale open farmland. This project will test two novel approaches to protecting developing country crops against a broad-spectrum of oomycete and fungal pathogens, using cacao as the initial target. The first involves targeting anti-microbial proteins to pathogen feeding structures called haustoria, using RPW8, an Arabidopsis protein that has a natural affinity for these feeding sites. The second approach involves blocking the entry of virulence proteins (effector proteins) that pathogens secrete into host cells to suppress the plant host's immune system. The most effective strategies will be identified first using fast growing Arabidopsis and tomato plants before being tested in cacao.Broader Impacts: The novel technologies that will be tested in this project are potentially applicable to an extremely broad array of crop diseases important to the developing world. The most destructive diseases of broad acreage staples such as rice and wheat are potentially amenable to this approach, as are many of the most limiting fungal and oomycete diseases of crops of importance to smallholders, such as yams, cassava, groundnuts, pearl millet, finger millet, sorghum, maize, potato, bean and cowpea. The project includes visits from scientists from developing countries, a colloquium in Ecuador, and regular communication with scientists from cacao-producing countries. Project outcomes as well as access to biological resources that include DNA constructs and germplasm will be disseminated through a project website (accessible via https://www.vbi.vt.edu/faculty/research_groups/brett_tyler) and through publications.