Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Wheat mlo Mutants Show Allele-Specific Levels of Enhanced Susceptibility to the Hemibiotrophic Fungal Pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae pv. Triticum

Katrin Gruner
,
Tobias Esser
ORCID logo ,
Johanna Acevedo-Garcia
,
Matthias Freh
,
Michael Habig
,
Roxana Strugala
,
Eva Stukenbrock
,
Ulrich Schaffrath
ORCID logo ,
Ralph Panstruga
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 27 March 2020 / Approved: 29 March 2020 / Online: 29 March 2020 (09:10:52 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Gruner, K.; Esser, T.; Acevedo-Garcia, J.; Freh, M.; Habig, M.; Strugala, R.; Stukenbrock, E.; Schaffrath, U.; Panstruga, R. Evidence for Allele-Specific Levels of Enhanced Susceptibility of Wheat mlo Mutants to the Hemibiotrophic Fungal Pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae pv. Triticum. Genes 2020, 11, 517. Gruner, K.; Esser, T.; Acevedo-Garcia, J.; Freh, M.; Habig, M.; Strugala, R.; Stukenbrock, E.; Schaffrath, U.; Panstruga, R. Evidence for Allele-Specific Levels of Enhanced Susceptibility of Wheat mlo Mutants to the Hemibiotrophic Fungal Pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae pv. Triticum. Genes 2020, 11, 517.

Abstract

Barley mlo mutants are well known for their profound resistance against powdery mildew disease. Recently, mlo mutant plants were generated in hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) with the help of transgenic (transcription-activator-like nuclease, TALEN) and non-transgenic (targeted induced local lesions in genomes, TILLING) biotechnological approaches. While full gene knockouts in the three wheat Mlo (TaMlo) homoeologs, created via TALEN, confer full resistance to the wheat powdery mildew pathogen (Blumeria graminis f.sp. tritici), the currently available TILLING-derived Tamlo missense mutants provide only partial protection against powdery mildew attack. Here we studied the infection phenotypes of TALEN- and TILLING-derived Tamlo plants to the two hemibiotrophic pathogens Zymoseptoria tritici, causing Septoria leaf blotch in wheat, and Magnaporthe oryzae pv. Triticum (MoT), the causal agent of wheat blast disease. While Tamlo plants showed unaltered outcomes upon challenge with Z. tritici, we found allele-specific levels of enhanced susceptibility to MoT, with stronger powdery mildew resistance correlated with more invasive growth by the blast pathogen. Surprisingly, unlike barley mlo mutants, young wheat mlo mutant plants do not show undesired pleiotropic phenotypes such as spontaneous callose deposits in leaf mesophyll cells or signs of early leaf senescence. In conclusion, our study provides evidence for allele-specific levels of enhanced susceptibility of Tamlo plants to the hemibiotrophic wheat pathogen MoT.

Keywords

Blumeria graminis; hexaploid bread wheat; Magnaporthe oryzae; Mlo; plant disease resistance; powdery mildew; TALEN; TILLING; Zymoseptoria tritici

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Agricultural Science and Agronomy

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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