PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 12509135

Engineering pathogen resistance in crop plants.

Matthew A Campbell·Heather A Fitzgerald·Pamela C Ronald
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

As the world population continues to increase, food supplies must also grow to meet nutritional requirements. One means of ensuring the stability and plentitude of the food supply is to mitigate crop loss caused by plant pathogens. Strategies for combating disease include traditional technologies such as plant breeding and chemical applications; current technologies such as generating transgenic plants that express components of known defense signaling pathways; and the adaptation of newer technologies such as RNA silencing of pathogen and plant transcripts. Breeding has been used to pyramid resistance (R) genes into many different plants including rice. Chemical strategies include application of salicylic acid (SA) analogs to stimulate systemic acquired resistance (SAR) responses. Genetic screens in Arabidopsis have identified genes controlling SAR and these genes have been manipulated and used to engineer crop plants. The diseases caused by plant viruses are being thwarted through the initiation of endogenous RNA silencing mechanisms. Many of these strategies show great promise, some limitations, and exciting opportunities to develop many new tools for combating plant pests.

Explore related subjects

Crops, AgriculturalImmunity, InnatePlant DiseasesPlants, Genetically ModifiedProtein EngineeringRNA InterferenceJournal ArticleReview

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Matthew A Campbell, Heather A Fitzgerald, Pamela C Ronald. 2002. Engineering pathogen resistance in crop plants.. https://doi.org/10.1023/a%3A1021109509953

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2026

Genetic transformation of forage crops: comparative barriers, evidence, and emerging strategies.

Forage crops include phylogenetically and biologically distinct legumes and grasses, and their genetic transformation is constrained by different combinations of host response, DNA-delivery efficiency, regeneration competence, genotype dependence, and genome stability. This review critically compares evidence from forage legumes and forage grasses rather than treating these groups as a single transformation category. We evaluate Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, protoplast-based delivery, particle bombardment, CRISPR/Cas-enabled applications, developmental regulators (DRs), viral vectors, and nanomaterial-mediated delivery according to four practical outcomes: reproducibility across genotypes, recovery of regenerated plants, heritable transmission, and genetic stability. Direct evidence in forage crops shows that protocol performance is strongly species-, genotype-, explant-, and endpoint-dependent; efficiencies based on transient reporters or resistant callus therefore cannot be directly equated with stable, fertile events. DR-assisted regeneration has direct proof of concept in recalcitrant forage grasses, whereas stable nanomaterial-mediated transformation and virus-induced heritable editing remain unvalidated in forage crops. We conclude that current progress is best interpreted as the engineering of interacting delivery and regeneration constraints, not as a universal transition to genotype-independent transformation. Priority should be given to standardized outcome reporting, multi-genotype and inter-laboratory validation, controlled DR expression, and rigorous molecular and phenotypic assessment of regenerated plants.

Crops, Agricultural↗
PubMed2026

Translating functional molecular knowledge into crop-breeding success.

Historical plant breeding, which optimizes phenotypes through selective crossing guided by phenotypic evaluation and molecular markers, is limited by evolutionary constraints that hinder rapid crop improvement. A new paradigm, precision breeding, circumvents these limitations by targeting genetic variants through functional molecular knowledge. To generate this knowledge at scale, sequence-based deep learning leverages high-quality genome sequence data to predict variant effects at base-pair resolution. When linked to agronomically important traits, these predictions enable breeders to prioritize variants for precision selection or editing. Although it is still in the early stages of development, we foresee three key applications for this approach: introgressing genes from distant breeding pools, purging deleterious mutations and designing new plant ideotypes. Looking ahead, refined computational models will facilitate targeted editing and the systematic redesign of complex physiological processes to address emerging breeding goals under shifting environmental conditions.

Crops, Agricultural↗
PubMed2026

Uncovering the early and conserved molecular mechanisms of root nitrogen foraging in model and crops.

BACKGROUND: Nitrogen (N) foraging, the ability of plants to promote preferential root growth in N-rich patches of soil, is fundamental to the competitiveness and wellbeing of plants. A unique “split-root” system, where a heterogenous N environment stimulates root foraging, provides a powerful experimental model to study the mechanisms underlying root foraging in model (Arabidopsis) and/or crop plants. RESULTS: We used the split-root set up to capture early molecular events involved in systemic N-signaling after exposure to a heterogeneous N signal, through time-course transcriptomic analysis across shoots and roots of Arabidopsis. We found that a histone methyltransferase, SET DOMAIN GROUP 8 (SDG8), is necessary for root N-foraging, suggesting a previously unknown role for chromatin regulation in mediating the preferential root growth response to colonize N-rich patches. To determine if the underlying molecular mechanism is conserved in evolution, we compared the root foraging behavior from model-to-crop (Arabidopsis, tomato and maize). Our analysis showed the model and crop species shared a root N-foraging growth response, with some variation among specific genotypes. Interestingly, we observed both shared and distinct transcriptional responses to heterogenous N environments among these three species. CONCLUSIONS: Our study has generated insights into the molecular basis of root N-foraging, with the potential to improve nutrient use efficiency in crop plants in a heterogeneous field environment.

Crops, Agricultural↗