Molecular determinants underlying non-host resistance to devastating fungal diseases of cereal plants

forthcoming

Plant pathogens cause devastating diseases that result in yield reduction and substantial economic losses. Chemical control is often ineffective, costly, and raises ecological concerns. An alternative strategy for generating durable chemical-free disease resistance would have a considerable impact on food security. Most plants species are naturally resistant against various pathogens species. This phenomenon is referred to as non-host resistance (NHR). For example, wheat has durable NHR to the powdery mildew fungus Blumeria hordei (Bh) that normally infects susceptible barley. Employment of NHR genes in susceptible host plants has the exciting potential to provide durable pathogen resistance. Yet, the understanding of molecular NHR mechanisms is limited and the isolation of NHR genes using conventional approaches is restricted by genetic incompatibilities between host and non-host species. Given the growing importance of crop diseases, addressing this critical knowledge gap is both ground-breaking and timely, contributing to food security and promoting non-chemical pest resistance. To bypass the bottlenecks common to standard procedures, 'noDisease' will use an innovative strategy, combining high-throughput molecular and biochemical methods whose developments I have pioneered to rapidly isolate the molecular factors underlying wheat NHR to Bh. This strategy will enable prediction of the most durable NHR genes for effective disease resistance. Specifically, our work plan includes the following aims: I. Isolate the genetic determinants that underly NHR II. Transfer NHR genes between plant species III. Assess the potential for NHR genes to provide durable disease resistance. This ambitious and timely approach employed within ‘noDisease’ will resolve long-standing bottlenecks that hinder molecular-genetic research on NHR, and has the potential to revolutionize both the basic understanding and deployment of non-chemical disease resistance in agriculture.