Orthologous genes Pm12 and Pm21 from two wild relatives of wheat show evolutionary conservation but divergent powdery mildew resistance

Shanying Zhu, Cheng Liu, Shuangjun Gong, Zhaozhao Chen, Rong Chen, Tianlei Liu, Renkang Liu, Haonan Du, Rui Guo, Genying Li, Miaomiao Li, Renchun Fan, Zhiyong Liu, Qian Hua Shen, Anli Gao, Pengtao Ma, Huagang He

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

Wheat powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt), is a devastating disease that threatens wheat production worldwide. Pm12, which originated from Aegilops speltoides, a wild relative of wheat, confers strong resistance to powdery mildew and therefore has potential use in wheat breeding. Using susceptible mutants induced by gamma irradiation, we physically mapped and isolated Pm12 and showed it to be orthologous to Pm21 from Dasypyrum villosum, also a wild relative of wheat. The resistance function of Pm12 was validated via ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis, virus-induced gene silencing, and stable genetic transformation. Evolutionary analysis indicates that the Pm12/Pm21 loci in wheat species are relatively conserved but dynamic. Here, we demonstrated that the two orthologous genes, Pm12 and Pm21, possess differential resistance against the same set of Bgt isolates. Overexpression of the coiled-coil domains of both PM12 and PM21 induces cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. However, their full-length forms display different cell death-inducing activities caused by their distinct intramolecular interactions. Cloning of Pm12 will facilitate its application in wheat breeding programs. This study also gives new insight into two orthologous resistance genes, Pm12 and Pm21, which show different race specificities and intramolecular interaction patterns.

Original languageEnglish
Article number100472
JournalPlant Communications
Volume4
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 13 2023
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 32171990 , 32072053 , 31971874 , 31872009 , and U1604116 ), the Key Research and Development Program of Zhenjiang ( NY2021001 ), the State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering ( PCCE-KF-2021-05 , PCCE-KF-2022-07 ), the State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology in Shandong Agricultural University ( 2021KF01 ), the Taishan Scholars Project ( tsqn201812123 ), and the Key Research and Development Program of Yantai ( 2019YT06000470 ). The authors thank Dr. Jie Zhang (Institute of Biotechnology and Nuclear Technology Research, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences) for irradiation of wheat seeds with 60 Co-γ-ray. The authors thank Prof. Yong Q. Gu (USDA-ARS Western Regional Research Center) for constructive comments on this manuscript. We are also grateful to Prof. Emerita Paula Jameson (University of Canterbury, New Zealand), financially supported by the “Double Hundred” Plan for Foreign Experts in Shandong Province, China, for critical review and editing of this manuscript. All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Keywords

  • Pm12
  • Pm21
  • evolutionary conservation
  • intramolecular interaction
  • powdery mildew resistance
  • race specificity

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