Location: Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research
2023 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Barley uses endoplasmic reticulum (ER) quality control protein to defend against powdery mildew attack. Most plant resistance genes deployed in agriculture encode a type of intracellular immune receptor known as nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat proteins (NLRs). However, the mechanisms by which NLR receptors impart critical functions to plant cells are often blocked by pathogen effectors, which then allow the pathogen to evade host defenses and cause disease. The barley powdery mildew pathogen secretes hundreds of these effectors into host cells to suppress defense, resulting in yield losses of 10 to 20%. ARS researchers in Ames, Iowa, in collaboration with Iowa State University and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, employed advanced genomic technology, known as yeast two-hybrid next-generation interaction screens, to discover that a pair of these effectors, designated AVRA1 and BEC1016, target the barley J-domain protein, HvERdj3B, in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). HvERdj3B is an ER quality control protein and suppressing its function increased powdery mildew disease. Together, these results suggest that barley innate immunity, that is, preventing powdery mildew penetration into epidermal cells, is dependent on ER quality control, which in turn requires the J-domain protein HvERdj3B and is regulated by the two effectors. These results that identify new components of host disease defense and the pathogen effectors that suppress them will enable breeders and growers to more effectively use disease resistance to produce better crops.
Review Publications
Choquette, N.E., Holland, J.B., Weldekidan, T., Drouault, J., De Leon, N., Flint Garcia, S.A., Lauter, N.C., Murray, S., Xu, W., Wisser, R. 2023. Environment-specific selection alters flowering-time plasticity and results in pervasive pleiotropic responses in maize. New Phytologist. 238(2):737-749. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18769.
Baldwin-Kordick, R., De, M., Lopez, M.D., Liebman, M., Lauter, N.C., Marino, J., McDaniel, M.D. 2022. Comprehensive impacts of diversified cropping on soil health and sustainability. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. 46(3): 331-363. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2021.2019167.
Guo, J., He, K., Meng, Y., Hellmich II, R.L., Chen, S., Lopez, M.D., Lauter, N.C., Wang, Z. 2022. Asian corn borer damage is affected by rind penetration strength of corn stalks in a spatiotemporally dependent manner. Plant Direct. 6(2). Article e381. https://doi.org/10.1002/pld3.381.
Elmore, J.M., Velásquez-Zapata, V., Wise, R.P. 2023. Next-generation yeast two-hybrid screening to discover protein-protein interactions. In: Mukhtar, S.,editor. Protein-Protein Interactions, Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2690:205-222. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3327-4_19.
Velásquez-Zapata, V., Elmore, J.M., Wise, R.P. 2023. Bioinformatic analysis of yeast two-hybrid next-generation interaction screen data. In: Mukhtar, S., editor. Protein-Protein Interactions, Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2690:223-239. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3327-4_19.
