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SUMMARY:Engineering NLR immune receptors to combat rice blast disease - Ma
 rk Banfield\, John Innes Centre
DTSTART:20191128T130000Z
DTEND:20191128T140000Z
UID:TALK131560@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:85030
DESCRIPTION:The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is a major threat to 
 global rice production. To promote infection\, the pathogen secretes effec
 tor proteins which manipulate host targets to promote virulence. Rice has 
 evolved specific intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine rich repeat(NLR)
  proteins to activate plant defences in response to certain effectors. Rec
 ognition of one such effector\, AVR-Pik\, is mediated by the paired rice N
 LR proteins Pik-1/Pik-2. An integrated heavy metal associated (HMA) domain
  in Pik-1 binds to certain alleles of AVR-Pik to trigger disease resistanc
 e. Multiple Pik-1 alleles are present in rice\, and exhibit differential r
 esponses to different AVR-Pik effector alleles. We have unpicked the molec
 ular basis of how amino acid polymorphisms expand this differential respon
 se\, and used natural variation to engineer expanded effector recognition 
 capabilities to a Pik-1 allele. However\, stealthy effector alleles AVR-Pi
 kC and AVR-PikF are not recognised by any Pik-1 alleles identified to date
 \, thereby escaping plant defences. A family of small HMA domain-containin
 g (sHMA) proteins have been identified as the host targets of AVR-Pik. We 
 performed biochemical studies to show that AVR-PikC/AVR-PikF bind to sHMA1
  in vitro. We hypothesised that modifying the HMA domain of Pikp-1 to rese
 mble sHMA1 would extend the response of the NLR to AVR-PikC/AVR-PikF. In t
 his presentation I will show our recent unpublished results demonstrating 
 a novel approach to engineer improved NLRs capable of triggering immunity 
 to previously unrecognised effectors.\n
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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