2022
Fungal Disease Resistance via Nuclear RNAi
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Contributor/Checkoff:
United Soybean Board
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
Biotic stressDisease
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Dilip M Shah, Danforth Plant Science Center
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
2220-172-0142
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
United Soybean Board
$57,408
Institution Funded:
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
$57,408
Brief Project Summary:
Fungal diseases are a major threat to soybean production causing up to 10% yield loss with a value of >$4B per year in the US alone. Attempts to enhance resistance to these diseases have met with limited success due to a lack of durable single-gene resistance and emergence of fungicide resistance in pathogen populations. RNAi-based host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) strategy offers an alternative to conventional fungicides due to season-long control and enhanced trait durability. Plastomics has recently introduced nuclear RNAi transgenes to control Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) and White Mold (WM) diseases (causative agents Fusarium virguliforme, Fvi, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Ssc, respectively) into soybean via conventional HIGS transgenic technology. The proposed research will evaluate HIGS for ease of event selection, breeding and antifungal trait efficacy. The Shah laboratory at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (DDPSC) has expertise in the analysis of RNAi transgene expression in soybean and performance of fungal infection and disease assays for both SDS and WM.
Information And Results
Project Summary

Project Objectives

Project Deliverables

Progress Of Work

Final Project Results

We have successfully generated transgenic soybean lines containing constructs for silencing genes in F. virguliforme and S. sclerotiorum. The presence of each transgene in transgenic soybean lines has been confirmed and the copy number of the gene has been determined. Fungal infection assays have been developed for both pathogens. Transgenic lines are currently in the greenhouse waiting for T2 seed and identification of homozygous lines.

Benefit To Soybean Farmers

Lines were generated to test for fungal resistance but were not yet validated at project end.

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.