Biotech Updates

Scientists Find Genes that Confer Resistance to Sorghum Anthracnose

December 9, 2011

Sorghum like many other important crops experience various plant diseases especially those caused by bacterial pathogens. One such disease is sorghum anthracnose which is caused by Colletotrichum sublineolum. Thus, Moses Biruma of Makerere University and colleagues conducted a study to identify resistance genes for C. sublineolum. They profiled East African sorghum genotypes and generated a final set of 126 sequenced genes, wherein 15 were identified to be biotic stress related. Seven of the genes were subjected to functional analysis followed by fungal inoculation and PCR analysis.

The resulting candidate set of genes include those that encode resistance proteins (Cs1A, Cs2A), a lipid transfer protein (SbLTP1), a zinc finger-like transcription factor (SbZnTF1), a rice defensin-like homolog (SbDEFL1), a cell death related protein (SbCDL1), and an unknown gene. When the expression of Cs1A, Cs2A, SbLTP1, SbZnF1 and SbCD1 were silenced, the resistance was highly compromised, unlike the milder effect in SbDEFL1 and SbCK2 silencing.

Genome analysis revealed that Cs1A and Cs2A genes are located in two different locations on chromosome 9 closely linked with duplicated genes Cs1B and Cs2B, respectively.

Subcribers of Theoretical and Applied Genetics may download the complete article at http://www.springerlink.com/content/f3242u8mv1475322/fulltext.pdf.