Harnessing resistance by association directly in wild sea beet

病原体及其宿主在进化军备竞赛中共同进化，这意味着参与宿主入侵的病原体基因以及宿主抗性基因的遗传多样性得以维持。然而，在农业环境中，作物育种限制了作物的适应能力。所有作物都是从野生祖先驯化而来的，许多作物受到相同病原体的影响。因此，揭示野生-农业宿主系统中宿主-病原体的相互作用可以推动我们对植物宿主如何适应的理解，并导致鉴定新的野生抗性基因候选物用于育种计划。甜菜是最近驯化的作物之一，它仍然可以与它的野生祖先海甜菜杂交。野生海甜菜代表了遗传多样性的储存库，重要的是，它与甜菜一样感染了同样的锈病病原体，甜菜uroomyces beticola。确定野生甜菜对这种病原体具有抗性的遗传多样性可以帮助我们通过操纵或育种提高栽培甜菜的产量。该博士项目采用最先进的基因组测序和分析技术和技术（即种群基因组学和AgRenSeq），直接从野生宿主及其后代中鉴定甜菜锈病抗性。该项目的目的是鉴定和分析野生抗性基因，以获得自然选择的信号，并与我们的工业合作伙伴KWS合作，并将生物技术方法应用于候选基因，以设计更好的抗性。

Pathogens and their hosts co-evolve in an evolutionary arms race, meaning that genetic diversity is maintained in pathogen genes involved in host invasion, as well as in host resistance genes. In an agricultural setting, however, crop breeding restricts the ability of crops to adapt. All crops were domesticated from wild progenitors and many are affected by the same pathogens. Unravelling host-pathogen interactions in a wild-agricultural host system can therefore drive our understanding of how plant hosts adapt as well as lead to the identification of novel wild resistance gene candidates for breeding programs. Sugar beet is one of the most recently domesticated crops and it can still be crossed with its wild progenitor, sea beet. Wild sea beet represents a reservoir of genetic diversity and, importantly, is infected by the same rust pathogen, Uromyces beticola, as sugar beet. Identifying the genetic diversity that confers resistance to this pathogen in wild beet can help us to improve yields of cultivated beet through manipulation or breeding. This PhD project employs state-of-the-art genome sequencing and analysis technologies and techniques (i.e. population genomics & AgRenSeq) to identify beet rust resistance directly from wild hosts and their offspring. The aim of the project is to identify and then analyse wild resistance genes for signals of natural selection and with our industrial partner, KWS, and to apply biotechnological approaches to candidate genes to engineer better resistance.