The wheat stem rust resistance gene Sr43 encodes an unusual protein kinase

Guotai Yu, Oadi Matny, Spyridon Gourdoupis, Naganand Rayapuram, Fatimah R. Aljedaani, Yan L. Wang, Thorsten Nürnberger, Ryan Johnson, Emma E. Crean, Isabel M.L. Saur, Catherine Gardener, Yajuan Yue, Ngonidzashe Kangara, Burkhard Steuernagel, Sadiye Hayta, Mark Smedley, Wendy Harwood, Mehran Patpour, Shuangye Wu, Jesse PolandJonathan D.G. Jones, T. Lynne Reuber, Moshe Ronen, Amir Sharon, Matthew N. Rouse, Steven Xu, Kateřina Holušová, Jan Bartoš, István Molnár, Miroslava Karafiátová, Heribert Hirt, Ikram Blilou, Łukasz Jaremko, Jaroslav Doležel, Brian J. Steffenson*, Brande B.H. Wulff*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

To safeguard bread wheat against pests and diseases, breeders have introduced over 200 resistance genes into its genome, thus nearly doubling the number of designated resistance genes in the wheat gene pool1. Isolating these genes facilitates their fast-tracking in breeding programs and incorporation into polygene stacks for more durable resistance. We cloned the stem rust resistance gene Sr43, which was crossed into bread wheat from the wild grass Thinopyrum elongatum 2,3. Sr43 encodes an active protein kinase fused to two domains of unknown function. The gene, which is unique to the Triticeae, appears to have arisen through a gene fusion event 6.7 to 11.6 million years ago. Transgenic expression of Sr43 in wheat conferred high levels of resistance to a wide range of isolates of the pathogen causing stem rust, highlighting the potential value of Sr43 in resistance breeding and engineering.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)921-926
Number of pages6
JournalNature Genetics
Volume55
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Y. Wang for help with phenotyping and compiling Supplementary Table 19 ; E.S. Vande Loo for media preparation; H. Zhang and A.W. Weatherhead for help with mass spectrometry (all KAUST, Saudi Arabia); Y. Jin (USDA-ARS, Minnesota, USA) for use of Pgt isolates 74MN1409, 75ND717C, 69MN399 and 14GEO189-1; M. van Slageren (Kew, UK) for help with species nomenclature; S. Saile and L. Rohr (University of Tübingen, Germany) for pZmUbi and NLS Golden Gate modules; Z. Dubská, R. Šperková and J. Weiserová for preparation of chromosome samples for flow cytometry; and M. Said and P. Cápál for chromosome sorting (all IEB, Czech Republic). This research was supported by the NBI Research Computing group and the Informatics Platform at the John Innes Centre, UK, and financed by funding from the 2Blades Foundation, USA, to B.J.S. and B.B.H.W.; the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Designing Future Wheat Cross-Institute Strategic Programme to B.B.H.W. (BBS/E/J/000PR9780); Marie Curie Fellowship grant award ‘AEGILWHEAT’ (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016-746253) and the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (K135057) to I.M.; ERDF project ‘Plants as a tool for sustainable global development’ (no. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000827) to J.B., K.H., M.K. and J.D.; King Abdullah University of Science and Technology to B.B.H.W., Ł.J., I.B. and H.H.; the Lieberman-Okinow Endowment at the University of Minnesota to B.J.S.; the Daimler and Benz Foundation, by the German Research Foundation (DFG) CEPLAS (EXC 2048/1—Project-ID: 390686111) and the DFG Emmy Noether Programme (SA 4093/1-1) to I.M.L.S.; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF4725 to the 2Blades Foundation and J.D.G.J.; and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to J.D.G.J.

Funding Information:
We thank Y. Wang for help with phenotyping and compiling Supplementary Table ; E.S. Vande Loo for media preparation; H. Zhang and A.W. Weatherhead for help with mass spectrometry (all KAUST, Saudi Arabia); Y. Jin (USDA-ARS, Minnesota, USA) for use of Pgt isolates 74MN1409, 75ND717C, 69MN399 and 14GEO189-1; M. van Slageren (Kew, UK) for help with species nomenclature; S. Saile and L. Rohr (University of Tübingen, Germany) for pZmUbi and NLS Golden Gate modules; Z. Dubská, R. Šperková and J. Weiserová for preparation of chromosome samples for flow cytometry; and M. Said and P. Cápál for chromosome sorting (all IEB, Czech Republic). This research was supported by the NBI Research Computing group and the Informatics Platform at the John Innes Centre, UK, and financed by funding from the 2Blades Foundation, USA, to B.J.S. and B.B.H.W.; the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Designing Future Wheat Cross-Institute Strategic Programme to B.B.H.W. (BBS/E/J/000PR9780); Marie Curie Fellowship grant award ‘AEGILWHEAT’ (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016-746253) and the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (K135057) to I.M.; ERDF project ‘Plants as a tool for sustainable global development’ (no. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000827) to J.B., K.H., M.K. and J.D.; King Abdullah University of Science and Technology to B.B.H.W., Ł.J., I.B. and H.H.; the Lieberman-Okinow Endowment at the University of Minnesota to B.J.S.; the Daimler and Benz Foundation, by the German Research Foundation (DFG) CEPLAS (EXC 2048/1—Project-ID: 390686111) and the DFG Emmy Noether Programme (SA 4093/1-1) to I.M.L.S.; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF4725 to the 2Blades Foundation and J.D.G.J.; and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to J.D.G.J.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Genetics

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