Discovery may Help Scientists Develop Rust-Proof Beans

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are one step closer to developing bean varieties that resist the rust fungus, a major problem for dry bean and snap bean growers in the United States. The rust fungus, Uromyces appendiculatus, has caused periodic epidemics in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. Bean rust causes millions of dollars of yield losses annually.

The researchers have detected all the 3,000 plus proteins produced in plants of common beans using high-throughput mass spectroscopy. From these proteins, a set of proteins that mediate plant response to rust fungus infection was identified.

The ARS scientists hope that the discovery of rust fungus-resistance proteins in dry bean will help identify similar proteins in soybean. Soybean crops in the United States have been infested by the Asian soybean rust, an important disease caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi which is very similar to Uromyces. The disease has caused serious significant crop losses in many soybean-growing regions in the world.

The complete article is available at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090227.htm