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Resistance genes within the same TIR-NBS-LRR locus from a wild North American grapevine species confer resistance to powdery mildew and downy mildew in cultivated grapevine

Seminar
3 December 2013, 11am: Free
at the James Hutton Institute, Dundee DD2 5DA
for scientists, students and other interested parties
Angela Feechan

Dr Angela Feechan, University College Dublin, will give a seminar on "Resistance genes within the same TIR-NBS-LRR locus from a wild North American grapevine species confer resistance to powdery mildew and downy mildew in cultivated grapevine" at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee. It will be broadcast live to the Aberdeen site.

Abstract

The most economically important diseases of grapevine cultivation worldwide are caused by the fungal pathogen powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator syn. Uncinula necator) and the oomycete pathogen downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola). Currently, grape growers rely heavily on the use of agrochemicals to minimise the potentially devastating impact of these pathogens on grape yield and quality. The wild North American grapevine species Muscadinia rotundifolia was recognised as early as 1889 to be resistant to both powdery and downy mildew. Resistance to these two mildew pathogens in M. rotundifolia maps to a single locus that contains a family of seven TIR-NB-LRR genes.

Two highly homologous (86% amino acid identity) members of this gene family confer strong resistance to these unrelated pathogens following genetic transformation into susceptible Vitis vinifera winegrape cultivars. Both resistance to Uncinula necator (MrRUN1) and resistance to Plasmopara viticola (MrRPV1) were found to confer resistance to multiple powdery and downy mildew isolates from France, North America and Australia; however, a single powdery mildew isolate collected from the south-eastern region of North America, to which M. rotundifolia is native, is capable of breaking MrRUN1-mediated resistance.

Biography

Angela Feechan gained a BSc (Honours) in Plant Science from the University of Edinburgh and went on to complete a PhD at the University of Edinburgh on “The role of S-nitrosothiols in the establishment of disease resistance in Arabidopsis”. After which she undertook a two year postdoctoral position in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Copenhagen University, Denmark to study penetration resistance to the plant pathogen, powdery mildew. Following this she moved to Australia to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for five years as a research scientist to investigate molecular strategies for resistance to powdery and downy mildew in grapevine. Angela recently relocated to Ireland where she is a lecturer in crop science at University College Dublin.

The seminar is being hosted by Dr Eleanor Gilroy.


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The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.