A wheat cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase confers broad-spectrum resistance against Septoria tritici blotch

Abstract

The poverty of disease resistance gene reservoirs limits the breeding of crops for durable resistance against evolutionary dynamic pathogens. Zymoseptoria tritici which causes Septoria tritici blotch (STB), represents one of the most genetically diverse and devastating wheat pathogens worldwide. No fully virulent Z. tritici isolates against synthetic wheats carrying the major resistant gene Stb16q have been identified. Here, we use comparative genomics, mutagenesis and complementation to identify Stb16q, which confers broad-spectrum resistance against Z. tritici. The Stb16q gene encodes a plasma membrane cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase that was recently introduced into cultivated wheat and which considerably slows penetration and intercellular growth of the pathogen.

Abstract

Septoria tritici blotch (STB) is a devastating foliar disease affecting worldwide wheat production. Here, the authors report a cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase that can confer resistance to Zymoseptoria tritici, the pathogen that causes STB, and slow penetration and intercellular growth of the pathogen.