Other

University of California

The United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of

The General Hospital Corporation

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Barbara J Baker

Frederick M Ausubel

John M Salmeron

Brian J Staskawicz

Fumiaki Katagiri

Jeffrey Ellis

Guo-Liang Yu

Michael Nicholas Mindrinos

Douglas Dahlbeck

Andrew F Bent

Barbara N Kunkel

Savithramma Puttaswamy Dinesh-Kumar

S P Dinesh-Kumar

Steven A Whitham

The invention relates to a method of identifying a plant disease-resistance gene that includes the steps of (a) providing a plant tissue sample; (b)introducing by biolistic transformation into the plant tissue sample a candidate plant disease-resistance gene; (c) expressing the candidate plant disease-resistance gene within the plant tissue sample; and (d) determining whether the plant tissue sample exhibits a disease-resistance response, whereby a response identifies a plant disease-resistance gene.

Methods of identifying plant disease-resistance genes

The present invention discloses the production of transgenic plants that exhibit a systemic acquired resistance (SAR) response even in the absence of an infecting pathogen. The transgenic plants are produced by a method comprising obtaining a plant having a first nucleic acid molecule encoding one or more protein products of the N gene sufficient to confer resistance to a phytopathogen and introducing into the genome of said plant a second nucleic acid molecule encoding the TIR domain of the N gene, wherein co-expression of the first and second nucleic acid molecules is sufficient to produce a systemic acquired resistance response in the plant in the absence of an infecting pathogen. The invention encompasses such plants, methods and biological molecules useful for producing the plants, and methods for increasing the disease resistance of plants.

Transgenic plants having non-pathogen induced systemic acquired resistance (SAR)

Constructs comprising (1) a cDNA molecule corresponding to the tobacco N gene and (2) at least a portion of the third intron of the N gene are disclosed. Such constructs are useful for producing TMV resistance in plants.

Pathogen resistance in plants using CDNA-N/intron constructs

Disclosed is substantially pure DNA encoding an,Rps2 polypeptide; substantially pure Rps2 polypeptide; and methods of using such DNA to express the Rps2 polypeptide in plant cells and whole plants to provide, in transgenic plants, disease resistance to pathogens. Also disclosed are conserved regions characteristic of the RPS family and primers and probes for the identification and isolation of additional RPS disease-resistance genes.

RPS gene family, primers, probes, and detection methods

Disclosed is substantially pure DNA encoding an Arabidopsis thaliana Rps2 polypeptide; substantially pure Rps2 polypeptide; and methods of using such DNA to express the Rps2 polypeptide in plant cells and whole plants to provide, in transgenic plants, disease resistance to pathogens. Also disclosed are conserved regions characteristic of the RPS family and primers and probes for the identification and isolation of additional RPS disease-resistance genes.

Genomic and cDNA sequences encoding plant virus resistance proteins are provided herein. Specifically exemplified are sequences encoding the N protein derived from tobacco mosaic virus resistant Nicotiana glutinosa. TMV-sensitive tobacco plants genetically engineered to contain and express an N protein coding sequence from a TMV-resistant line acquire the TMV-resistant phenotype.

Plant virus resistance gene and methods

Growing community of inventors

Richmond, CA, United States of America

Barbara J Baker