Webinar: Exploration and precision editing of host factors to develop bymovirus-resistant cereal crops

Date & Time: Thursday 16 October, 10:00am EDT

Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IArGWHL5RNC2udxMKDsX1g

Presenter

Ping Yang
Professor
State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Breeding
Institute of Crop Sciences
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Outline

Plant RNA viruses have relatively small genomes and encode a limited number of proteins. Their successful infection relies on the hijack of host cell machinery, including host-encoded virus-compatible proteins known as host factors. The manipulation of host factor genes results in a loss of compatibility for viral infection, a phenomenon referred as recessive resistance.

Bymovirus diseases are a significant threat to autumn-sown barley and wheat in various countries of Europe and East Asia. These diseases are caused by infection of barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV) and/or barley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV) in barley, and wheat yellow mosaic virus (WYMV) in wheat. Breeding for varieties with genetic resistance gene(s) has been approved as the optimal strategy for disease control. To date, two host factors for BaYMV/BaMMV in barley have been cloned by a forward genetics approach, whereas no host factors for WYMV have been genetically identified in hexaploid wheat.

In this talk, I will introduce the exploration of host factor genes for BaMMV/BaYMV in barley, and the development of resistance genetic lines for WYMV using genome editing in bread wheat. Finally, I would like to propose the use of barley as a diploid model to uncover hidden genes in bread wheat. This strategy involves identifying a foundation for targeted genome editing in diploid barley, which then serve as a foundation for targeted genome editing of their homologs in transformable hexaploid wheat varieties.