Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Originally published in Science Express on 19 February 2009
Science 6 March 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5919, pp. 1357 - 1360
DOI: 10.1126/science.1166289
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

A Kinase-START Gene Confers Temperature-Dependent Resistance to Wheat Stripe Rust

Daolin Fu,1*{dagger} Cristobal Uauy,1*{ddagger} Assaf Distelfeld,1,2* Ann Blechl,3 Lynn Epstein,4 Xianming Chen,5 Hanan Sela,2 Tzion Fahima,2 Jorge Dubcovsky1§

Stripe rust is a devastating fungal disease that afflicts wheat in many regions of the world. New races of Puccinia striiformis, the pathogen responsible for this disease, have overcome most of the known race-specific resistance genes. We report the map-based cloning of the gene Yr36 (WKS1), which confers resistance to a broad spectrum of stripe rust races at relatively high temperatures (25° to 35°C). This gene includes a kinase and a putative START lipid-binding domain. Five independent mutations and transgenic complementation confirmed that both domains are necessary to confer resistance. Yr36 is present in wild wheat but is absent in modern pasta and bread wheat varieties, and therefore it can now be used to improve resistance to stripe rust in a broad set of varieties.

1 Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
2 Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel.
3 USDA-ARS, Western Regional Research Center, Albany, CA 94710, USA.
4 Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
5 USDA-ARS and Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271018, China.

{ddagger} Present address: John Innes Centre, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.

§ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jdubcovsky{at}ucdavis.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Type I-Secreted, Sulfated Peptide Triggers XA21-Mediated Innate Immunity.
S.-W. Lee, S.-W. Han, M. Sririyanum, C.-J. Park, Y.-S. Seo, and P. C. Ronald (2009)
Science 326, 850-853
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Loss of Function of a Proline-Containing Protein Confers Durable Disease Resistance in Rice.
S. Fukuoka, N. Saka, H. Koga, K. Ono, T. Shimizu, K. Ebana, N. Hayashi, A. Takahashi, H. Hirochika, K. Okuno, et al. (2009)
Science 325, 998-1001
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Barley Stem Rust Resistance Genes: Structure and Function.
A. Kleinhofs, R. Brueggeman, J. Nirmala, L. Zhang, A. Mirlohi, A. Druka, N. Rostoks, and B. J. Steffenson (2009)
The Plant Genome 2, 109-120
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)