Cross-Kingdom RNAi of Pathogen Effectors Leads to Quantitative Adult Plant Resistance in Wheat

Sammanfattning

Cross-kingdom RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process allowing plants to transfer small regulatory RNAs to invading pathogens to trigger the silencing of target virulence genes. Transient assays in cereal powdery mildews suggest that silencing of one or two effectors could lead to near loss of virulence, but evidence from stable RNAi lines is lacking. We established transient host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) in wheat, and demonstrate that targeting an essential housekeeping gene in the wheat powdery mildew pathogen (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici) results in significant reduction of virulence at an early stage of infection. We generated stable transgenic RNAi wheat lines encoding a HIGS construct simultaneously silencing three B.g. tritici effectors including SvrPm3(a1/f1), a virulence factor involved in the suppression of the Pm3 powdery mildew resistance gene. We show that all targeted effectors are effectively downregulated by HIGS, resulting in reduced fungal virulence on adult wheat plants. Our findings demonstrate that stable HIGS of effector genes can lead to quantitative gain of resistance without major pleiotropic effects in wheat.

Nyckelord

cross-kingdom RNAi; ck-RNAi; host-induced gene silencing; HIGS; ribonuclease-like effectors; effectors; Blumeria graminis; wheat

Publicerad i

Frontiers in Plant Science
2020, volym: 11, artikelnummer: 253
Utgivare: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA

SLU författare

• Bourras, Salim

  • Institutionen för skoglig mykologi och växtpatologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    
  • Universität Zürich

Associerade SLU-program

SLU Nätverk växtskydd

UKÄ forskningsämne

Jordbruksvetenskap

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00253

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/105283