Poster: Molecular & Cellular Plant-Microbe Interactions: Plant Defense Responses
761-P
Physiological and Molecular-Genetic Characterization of Basal Resistance in Sorghum
J. KIMBALL (1), D. Chen (2), G. Stacey (2), P. Balint-Kurti (1) (1) North Carolina State University, U.S.A.; (2) University of Missouri, U.S.A.
Early detection of pathogens is a critical component of plant immunity. Basal resistance, aka innate immunity, is the first line of defense to protect plants against a range of pathogens. Triggered by the recognition of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) by pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs), the induction of basal resistance has been shown to vary quantitatively within and across species. In sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), preliminary results supports this hypothesis. The goal of this project is to investigate the genetic architecture and transcriptional response associated with the basal defense response in sorghum. Specific objectives in this project are to 1. Develop robust assays to measure disease resistance and the MAMP response in sorghum, and screen a set of diverse sorghum germplasm for variation in these traits, 2. Identify genes differentially regulated during the MAMP response in high and low responding sorghum genotypes, and 3. Examine the activity of fungal extracts of sorghum pathogens in inducing the MAMP response, 4. Measure the effect of the MAMP response on disease resistance in controlled assays, and 5. Determine whether control of variation in the MAMP response and variation in disease resistance is under shared genetic control.