| WARF: P98067US |  |
| Cultivar Specificity Gene from the Rice Pathogen Magnaporthe grisea |
| INVENTORS | • | Sally Leong, Mark Farman |
OVERVIEW
Rice blast is a devastating fungal disease that can cause significant crop losses in rice, a worldwide staple food. The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea has emerged as a model system for understanding fungal-plant interactions. The inventors have cloned a novel avirulence gene from
M. grisea, termed AVR1-CO39. This gene encodes a signal that triggers a strong defense response in rice cultivar CO39, which carries the corresponding resistance gene. Open reading frame 3 (ORF 3) of the
AVR1-CO39 avirulence gene appears to play a key role in inducing cultivar-specific defense against the pathogen.
By transforming or treating rice cultivar CO39 with the AVR1-CO39 gene or its products, this invention may be used to broaden the scope of the cultivar’s resistance to additional
M. grisea races/pathotypes and to pathogens other than M. grisea. Also, the resistance gene from cultivar CO39, which must be present in a plant for induction of disease resistance using
AVR1-CO39, can be introduced into other susceptible rice cultivars.
KEY BENEFITS
- As a pre-treatment, co-treatment or transgene, may confer broad-spectrum pathogen resistance on rice cultivars carrying the CO39 resistance gene
- Offers several, potential methods for inducing plant resistance, including:
- Treatment with epiphytic or endophytic bacteria expressing a portion of the AVR1-CO39 gene (e.g. ORF 3) or with an AVR1-CO39 protein extract
- Creation of transgenic plants carrying the AVR1-C039 expressed from a pathogen-inducible plant promoter
- AVR1-CO39 nucleic acids or gene products may be used to identify homologs in other Magnaporthe isolates and to produce large quantities of substantially pure AVR1-CO39 protein
- AVR1-CO39 DNA may be inserted into vectors suitable for expression in a number of hosts, including bacteria, fungi, insects and plants
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Intellectual Property Status
Tech Fields
Agriculture - Disease resistance
Agriculture - Plant biotech
CONTACT INFORMATION
For current licensing status, please contact our team at
licensing@warf.org
or phone 608.262.4924. (Clicking this link will open a contact form in a popup window. If you have problems viewing the form, try disabling your popup blocker software.)
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