A07

Genomic and geographic maps of NLRs and matching effectors in the A. thaliana - H. arabidopsidis pathosystem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distribution of resistance
and susceptibility to a
collection of over 100
Hyaloperonospora
arabidopsidis isolates in
a set of diverse Arabidopsis
thaliana lines.

 

Our ultimate goal is to learn what drives immune receptor diversity in wild plants. Such knowledge is not only essential for making predictions about infection dynamics in the wild, but also for making crop systems more resilient to pathogen infections.

To achieve this goal, we need to link immune receptor diversity in host plants to diversity in pathogens and pathogen genes. In this project, we will systematically test the recognition of dozens of alleles encoded by two known Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis effector loci by dozens of alleles of the corresponding Arabidopsis thaliana NLR receptor loci. Inventories of effector and receptor alleles will be obtained from a large number of fully assembled pathogen and host genomes.

This project will reveal

• the range of effector alleles recognized by specific receptor alleles,
• the range of receptor alleles capable of recognizing specific effector alleles, and
• how well individual effector-receptor interactions predict compatibility/incompatibility in the whole-organism context.

As a basis for work in the next funding period, we will develop single-cell based methods for the unbiased discovery of effector/receptor interactions.

 

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Detlef Weigel, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen