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Poster

Session: Session 2 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-029 - Effector-target interaction guided bioengineering of wheat blast resistance

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Crop resistance genetics and genomics

    Presenting Author(s)

  • YH

    Yu-Seng Huang

    Max Plank Institute for Biology Tübingen
    Reutlingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

    • Author(s)

  • WC

    Wagner Calegari Fagundes

    Postdoc
    Max-Planck Institute for Biology
    Tübingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

  • SH

    Sophia Häußler

    Max-Planck Institute for Biology
    Tübingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

  • TL

    Thorsten Langner

    Group Leader
    Max Planck Institute for Biology
    Tübingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

Wheat blast disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae, has emerged only 40 years ago in Brazil, but has developed into a major concern for global cereal production. In recent years, a single clonal wheat blast fungus lineage spread from S. America to Asia and Africa. All isolates of this highly virulent lineage contain a mini-chromosome (mChr) which was absent in early S. American wheat blast isolates, suggesting a role in host adaptation. Effective strategies for wheat blast resistance are limited. While fungicides are used for disease management, their effectiveness varies due to emerging resistance in fungal populations. Genetic resistance is also limited, with several resistance genes being ineffective in the field, highlighting the need for new resistance strategies. Nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins detect pathogen effectors and are key components of plant immunity. Some NLRs acquired novel recognition specificities by incorporating noncanonical integrated domains (IDs) that enable effector perception. This project aims to develop wheat blast resistance by engineering plant immune receptor IDs to target mChr-encoded blast fungus effectors. We characterize interactions between mChr-encoded effectors and their host target proteins and integrate the corresponding interfaces into known plant immune receptors to create bioengineered immune receptors with custom recognition capacities against the wheat blast fungus.