"Nature": Qiu Jinlong's team of the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences uses dual "gene scissors" to achieve breakthrough disease-resistant and high-yield breeding of wheat

The people are the foundation of the country, and the valley is the life of the people
.

Food security is an important foundation for national security, and it is a top priority related to national movement and people's livelihood and social stability

 

Breeding and spreading new disease-resistant varieties is an economical, effective and environment-friendly strategy to control crop diseases
.

The successful infection of pathogenic bacteria requires the utilization of plant susceptibility genes, and mutations in susceptibility genes usually confer broad-spectrum and durable disease resistance to plants

 

On February 10 ,2022 , a team from the Institute of Microbiology (Institute of Microbiology) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (Institute of Genetics and Development) jointly published a paper entitled "Genome edited powderymildew" in the top international journal " Nature ".
"resistance in wheat without growth penalties" , clarified the molecular mechanism of new wheat mlo mutants that are both resistant to powdery mildew and high yield ; Accurate control was achieved, and new germplasms with broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildew and high yield and high quality were quickly obtained .
This study provides a new path for the practical application of susceptible genes in disease resistance breeding .

 

Wheat is one of the most important staple crops, providing energy for more than one-third of the population, and its yield and quality are directly related to world food security
.

Wheat powdery mildew ( Blumeria graminisf.
sp.
tritici) is an important fungal disease affecting wheat production worldwide

 

After eight years of cooperation, the researchers finally analyzed the molecular mechanism of the formation of the phenotype of the wheat Tamlo-R32 mutant and found that there is a large deletion of about 304Kb near the TaMLO-B1 locus of the Tamlo-R32mutant genome .

The change of the three-dimensional structure led to an increase in the expression level of the upstream gene TaTMT3 , which in turn overcame the negative phenotype caused by the mutation of the susceptible gene MLO , and finally achieved a win-win situation of disease resistance and yield .

 

      In order to apply the research results to disease resistance breeding, the researchers used traditional breeding methods to cross the Tamlo-R32  mutant with the main wheat cultivar in China, and introduced excellent disease resistance traits into the main cultivar through several generations of backcrossing
.

More importantly, using CRISPR genome editing technology, it is possible to directly create corresponding gene mutations in the main wheat varieties, and successfully obtain broad-spectrum powdery mildew resistance in many main wheat varieties in only 2-3 months.
wheat germplasm with unaffected growth and yield

 

Li Shengnan ,        assistant researcher of Qiu Jinlong's research group of the Institute of Microbiology , Lin Dexing, a doctoral student of Gao Caixia's research group of the Institute of Genetics and Development, Zhang Yunwei, a postdoctoral fellow, and Deng Min, a doctoral student of Xiao Jun's research group of the Institute of Genetics and Development are the co-first authors of this article
.

Researcher Gao Caixia, Qiu Jinlong and Xiao Jun are the co-corresponding authors

　　 

Figure: Genome editing-mediated chromosomal rearrangement for powdery mildew-resistant high-yielding wheat( AD, Tamlo-R32  is resistant to powdery mildew and has no growth defects; E , Tamlo-R32 produces a large 304Kb deletion near TaMLO-B1  Locus ; F , Schematic diagram of TaTMT3B expression regulation; G , Gene editing to rapidly obtain new germplasm of mutant wheat )

 

Paper link: https:// align="center">