Resistance (R) Genes: Applications and Prospects for Plant Biotechnology and Breeding

Abstract

The discovery of novel plant resistance (R) genes (including their homologs and analogs) opened interesting possibilities for controlling plant diseases caused by several pathogens. However, due to environmental pressure and high selection operated by pathogens, several crop plants have lost specificity, broad-spectrum or durability of resistance. On the other hand, the advances in plant genome sequencing and biotechnological approaches, combined with the increasing knowledge on Rgenes have provided new insights on their applications for plant genetic breeding, allowing the identification and implementation of novel and efficient strategies that enhance or optimize their use for efficiently controlling plant diseases. The present review focuses on main perspectives of application of R-genes and its co-players for the acquisition of resistance to pathogens in cultivated plants, with emphasis on biotechnological inferences, including transgenesis, cisgenesis, directed mutagenesis and gene editing, with examples of success and challenges to be faced.

Update on Cuticular Wax Biosynthesis and Its Roles in Plant Disease Resistance

“…It was estimated that these pathogens have contributed to at least 20% of yield loss in important crops including wheat, rice, maize, potatoes, and soybeans [ 1 , 2 ]. Therefore, diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms and herbivores are major factors affecting agriculture [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Unlike animals that could escape from predators and pathogens, plants must withstand pathogen attacks at the sites of growth [ 1 , 2 ].…”

Epidemiology, Genetics and Resistance of Alternaria Blight in Oilseed Brassica

“…Presence of both common and population specific QTLs indicates that resistance against Alternaria blight is quantitative and more than one gene potentially governs the resistance [48]. With the modern development of biotechnology, the discovery of resistance (R) and defense-related genes has opened up new scopes for inducing genetic resistance against different biotic and abiotic stresses [49]. Advances in microarray data processing also ease the process of identifying candidate genes in certain physiological processes.…”

Applications of CRISPR/Cas to Improve Crop Disease Resistance: Beyond Inactivation of Susceptibility Factors

“…Transferring R-genes to crops and expressing them in response to biotic stress could improve pathogen resistance, but the number of suitable R-genes is limited and may first require the identification of interacting helper NLRs (Wang et al, 2019). Furthermore, dominant R-gene-mediated resistance is less durable than recessive resistance and is usually restricted to a few race-specific isolates, which can quickly overcome this resistance by their higher mutation rate (Dangl et al, 2013;Pandolfi et al, 2017;Kourelis and van der Hoorn, 2018). Thus, to achieve a more durable resistance, trait stacking/pyramiding has been applied and could be further facilitated by CRISPR/Cas-induced HDR (Pandolfi et al, 2017).…”

“…Furthermore, dominant R-gene-mediated resistance is less durable than recessive resistance and is usually restricted to a few race-specific isolates, which can quickly overcome this resistance by their higher mutation rate (Dangl et al, 2013;Pandolfi et al, 2017;Kourelis and van der Hoorn, 2018). Thus, to achieve a more durable resistance, trait stacking/pyramiding has been applied and could be further facilitated by CRISPR/Cas-induced HDR (Pandolfi et al, 2017). On the other hand, the transfer of PRRs would confer per se a much broader and more durable resistance, which has been successfully shown between Arabidopsis and tomato (Lacombe et al, 2010), rice and banana (Tripathi et al, 2014), or Arabidopsis and wheat (Schoonbeek et al, 2015).…”