Ma Jianxin, a professor of agriculture at Purdue University, holds a soybean leaf in his hand. Behind the horse, from left are students Wang Weidong, Chance Clark and Dominic Provancal. As part of Purdue University's Next Moves plant science program, Ma is working to improve soybean plants. (Purdue University Photo/Tom Campbell)
West Lafayette, Indiana - In the process of cultivating resilient plants following genetic characteristics, a newly discovered gene illuminates the way soybeans are naturally resistant to devastating diseases.
Purdue University announced on Thursday (November 18) the establishment of an academic-industrial partnership with Corteva Agriscience to identify a single gene that causes Phytophthora resistance, so plant breeders can easily detect which plants have this characteristic.
Ma Jianxin, a professor of agriculture at Purdue University’s School of Agriculture, who led the team, said: “The use of molecular markers for testing requires only a small DNA sample, so even seeds can be easily checked for disease resistance.” “We There is no need to wait for the plant to grow to see if it has this characteristic, or waste resources to grow the plant without it. This precision breeding speeds up the delivery of new, robust varieties to farmers."
The gene named Rps11 confers broad-spectrum resistance to this pathogen. The team identified and cloned the gene, which is a key step in creating a molecular marker that accurately detects the presence of the gene—the same principle used to test for COVID-19. Nature Communications published a paper detailing the team's work.
Phytophthora is a mold that causes rhizome rot and can damage soybean fields, causing more than one billion US dollars in losses to farmers worldwide each year. Like fungi and other pathogens, soil-borne molds evolve over time, and the resistance of existing soybean strains is weakening. Ma said that he is also a member of Purdue University’s next step in plant science and is also the university’s plant biology. Member of the Academic Center.
He said: "This pathogen is difficult to control with fungicides, fungicides are also expensive, and have potential environmental impact." "Genetic resistance is the best way to prevent it. In addition to Rps11, the collaboration also identified Three other genes, these genes also confer excellent resistance to pathogens, and we hope to be able to clone these genes as well."
"Corteva Agriscience is pleased to work with Purdue University to develop potential solutions for our farmer customers," said Jeff Thompson, Corteva's Global Soybean Director. "This fits very well with our interest in working with land-grant universities to create innovative solutions to protect our soybean crops from pests and diseases."
Ma said that Corteva provides the opportunity to use the most advanced facilities and collaborate with top scientists. The project team used the company's high-throughput genotyping and sequencing technology to identify a new gene that causes Phytophthora resistance. The collaboration also provides a training platform and advanced research experience for Purdue University undergraduates and graduate students through direct interaction with Corteva scientists.
The Rps11 gene is located in a complex region of the genome. This region carries more than a dozen genes similar in structure to Rps11 but different in function. And the number of such genes in this region varies from 5 to 23 plant species, so it is difficult to find Rps11.
"If we only rely on the publicly available soybean reference genome, we would not capture Rps11," Ma said. "This region exists in these genomes, but there is no genetic counterpart that produces resistance. Therefore, we have to decode the entire region in the Rps11 donor line, and we cannot complete it without Corteva's equipment and expertise."
He said that under the guidance of the entire sequence of the region, the team was able to design a set of DNA markers within a few months for high-throughput genotyping of more than 17,000 plants and finally determine the gene.
He said the research team hopes to do the same for the other three genes they discovered.
"If plants can develop multiple genes for disease resistance, they will have multiple layers of protection," Ma said. "We also plan to explore how structural variations in this genomic region cause disease resistance to understand and possibly improve disease resistance in other ways. We hope to provide as many tools as possible for sustainable agriculture."
Writer: Elizabeth K. Gardner, 765-441-2024, ekgardner@purdue.edu
Source: Ma Jianxin, maj@purdue.edu
Other photos available on Google Drive.
A huge NLR gene confers broad-spectrum resistance to Phytophthora sojae in soybeans
Wang Weidong, Chen Liyang, Kevin Fengle, Joey Pollard, Victor Laka, Wang Xutong, Chancellor of the Exchequer B. Clark, Tomala J. Fleury, Jon Millvold, David O'Neill, Maria Magdalena Van Dijk, Ashley Hudson, Jesse Munkwald, Andy Baumgarten, Jeff Thompson, Cai Guohong, Oswald Crasta, Rajat Aggarwal, Ma Jianxin
Phytophthora sojae rhizome rot (PRSR) is a global destructive soybean soil-borne disease. The discovery of genes with broad-spectrum resistance to pathogens is a necessary condition for preventing disease outbreaks. Here, we show that soybean Rps11 is a 27.7 kb nucleotide binding site rich in leucine repeat sequence (NBS-LRR or NLR) gene, which has a broad spectrum of resistance to pathogens. Rps11 is located in a genomic region that contains a set of large NLR genes from a single source in soybeans and is derived from multiple rounds of unequal recombination. Such events lead to promoter fusion and LRR amplification, which may contribute to a broad spectrum of resistance. The NLR gene cluster showed significant structural diversification in phylogenetic representative varieties, including gene copy number variation ranging from 5 to 23 copies, and there was no Rps11 in any of the non-Rps11 donor varieties examined. Allelic copies, which embodies the innovative evolution of NLR genes and NLR gene clusters.
Maureen Manier, Head of Department, mmanier@purdue.edu
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