Location: Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research
Project Number: 3020-21000-012-019-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2023
End Date: Aug 31, 2026
Objective:
Identify interacting targets between wheat and Hessian fly during compatible and incompatible interactions.
Approach:
Representative putative Hessian fly effectors will be used as antigens to produce specific antibodies. The antibodies will be used for western blots and immuno-precipitation to identify wheat targets that interact with Hessian fly effectors. A major problem for immuno-precipitation to identify interacting targets in a plant - pest system is that the levels of effectors injected by pests into plant hosts are usually very low for immuno-detection. To overcome this potential problem, representative Hessian fly effectors will be directly expressed to high levels in host plants using a plant expression system. Interacting targets identified by immuno-precipitation will be analyzed by Q-TOF to reveal their chemical identity. If the immuno-precipitation approach fails to produce results, the alternative approach will be to use the yeast two hybridization system. If that happens, the representative Hessian fly effectors will be used as the baits to identify the preys in wheat. The chemical identify of the identified preys will be again determined by Q-TOF.
