EAGER: Molecular Identification of a Geminivirus Resistance Gene in Arabidopsis

双生病毒是植物DNA病毒，主要在世界热带地区对番茄、棉花、玉米和其他作物植物造成严重的经济损害。它们被认为是一种新出现的威胁，因为最近的疫情在乌干达（木薯）和非洲其他地区（玉米）造成了广泛的饥荒，在巴基斯坦和印度（棉花）造成了经济困难。它们对美国是一个威胁，因为最近从以色列引进了番茄黄化曲叶病毒，并可能引进感染棉花或玉米的旧世界双生病毒。虽然不同双生病毒的抗性基因已经在豆类、番茄、玉米和其他作物中被鉴定，但它们都没有被测序。拟南芥中马铃薯Y病毒属抗性基因的测序是植物育种的一个突破，因为它允许在几种不同的作物植物中鉴定天然存在的抗性基因，并且还揭示了哪些宿主因子对RNA病毒感染很重要。已经鉴定出一种拟南芥基因，可以对两种截然不同类型的DNA病毒产生抗性。这种广泛的抗性将是对基因工程方法的重要补充，如RNAi，这些方法是强大的，但病毒特异性。本项目的目标是通过确定哪些DNA片段与作图（F2）群体中的抗性相关来鉴定和测序拟南芥双生病毒抗性基因。将对应于该DNA片段的克隆基因转化到易感植物中并用两种双生病毒攻击。如果该基因的表现符合预期（赋予抗性），则有关该基因新功能的信息将提交给拟南芥信息资源（TAIR），然后发表。该项目将支持一名西班牙裔博士后学生一年。

Geminiviruses are plant DNA viruses that cause severe economic damage to tomato, cotton, corn, and other crop plants, primarily in tropical regions of the world. They are considered to be an emerging threat because of recent outbreaks that caused wide-spread famine in Uganda (cassava) and other parts of Africa (corn) and economic hardship in Pakistan and India (cotton). They are a threat to the US because of the recent introduction of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus from Israel and the possible introduction of Old World geminiviruses infecting cotton or corn. Although resistance genes for different geminiviruses have been identified in bean, tomato, corn, and other crops, none of them has been sequenced. Sequencing of a potyvirus resistance gene in Arabidopsis was a breakthrough for plant breeding because it allowed the identification of naturally occurring resistance genes in several different crop plants and also shed light on exactly which host factors were important for RNA virus infection. An Arabidopsis gene has been identified that confers resistance to two very different types of DNA virus. Such broad-based resistance would be an important complement to genetic engineering methods, such as RNAi, that are powerful but virus-specific. The goal of this project is to identify and sequence the Arabidopsis geminivirus resistance gene by determining which DNA fragments correlate with resistance in a mapping (F2) population. A cloned gene corresponding to this DNA fragment will be transformed into a susceptible plant and challenged with both geminiviruses. If the gene behaves as expected (resistance is conferred), information about the new function of the gene will be submitted to the Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) and then published. This project will support a Hispanic postdoctoral student for one year.