home news forum careers events suppliers solutions markets expos directories catalogs resources advertise contacts
 
News Page

The news
and
beyond the news
Index of news sources
All Africa Asia/Pacific Europe Latin America Middle East North America
  Topics
  Species
Archives
News archive 1997-2008
 

Can chickpea genes save mustard seeds from blight disease?


USA
January 29, 2020


Comparative microscopic analysis of the infection pattern of Alternaria brassicae on host plant (mustard) and non-host plant (chickpea).- Credit: Urooj Fatima, Priyadarshini Bhorali, and Muthappa Senthil-Kumar
 

During visits to fields in Assam, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, India, plant biologists Muthappa Senthil-Kumar and Urooj Fatima found mustard plants infested with Alternaria blight disease. They also noticed that an adjacent field of chickpeas were completely uninfected.

Alternaria blight caused by fungal pathogen devastates Brassica crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and mustard seed. Highly infectious, this fungus can infect the host plant at all stages of growth. Currently Alternaria blight is managed by chemical fungicides, but recently efforts have been made to utilize breeding and modern biotechnological approaches to develop blight-resistant crop varieties.

Non-host resistance (NHR) is the most durable resistance against fungal pathogens. While Alternaria typically penetrates the epidermis or the stomata of a host plant, this is unable to deploy this attack on plants protected by NHR. To protect Brassica crops from this fungus, scientists are studying the mechanisms of NHR in order to develop improved crop varieties.

In a study published in MPMI, plant biologists in India detailed their research comparing the response of a host plant (mustard) and a non-host plant (chickpea) to the fungus on a morpho-pathological level. They found that the chickpea actively suppressed the fungal development, penetration, and colonization even after hours of infection.

They also studied chickpea transcripts to pinpoint several genes involved in the plant's pathogen defense.

"These genes are interesting candidates for additional study to determine their precise involvement in NHR," said Senthil-Kumar, who conducts research through the National Institute of Plant Genome Research. "These genes could then be transferred to mustard plants to develop blight-resistance crops."

For more information about this study, read "Morpho-Pathological and Global Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Robust Nonhost Resistance Responses in Chickpea Interaction with Alternaria brassicae" published in the December issue of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI).



More news from: APS - American Phytopathological Society


Website: http://www.apsnet.org

Published: January 29, 2020

The news item on this page is copyright by the organization where it originated
Fair use notice

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  Archive of the news section


Copyright @ 1992-2024 SeedQuest - All rights reserved