Location: Crop Production and Pest Control Research
Project Number: 5020-21220-009-007-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2023
End Date: Aug 31, 2025
Objective:
1 Construct a system for gene knock-out by CRISPR in Fusarium virguliforme and Cercospora sojina;
2 Use the system to knock-out candidate pathogenicity genes and determine their role in disease development.
Approach:
1. Generate mutants of Fusarium virguliforme and Cercospora sojina expressing Cas9 gene;
2. Generate mono-, double- and triple- mutants of F. virguliforme and Cercospora sojina in which one or more known or suspected pathogenicity genes are knocked-out, and
3. Test the pathogenicity of mutants on soybeans, by using the mutant in which a gene believed to play a role in pathogen infection of its host is mutated to infect the plant host, thus validate or invalidate the hypothesis..
