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Crop losses caused by plant pathogens are managed by either planting resistant varieties or using pesticides. A trio of papers from The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, UK, provides evidence that engineering pathogen resistance could provide sustainable genetic solutions to crop pests and pathogens. In one report, soybean is made resistant to Asian soybean rust using a gene cloned from the orphan legume pigeonpea (p 661). In two accompanying reports, resistance genes for potato late-blight and wheat stem rust are identified by developing rapid resistance-gene cloning methods (pp 656 and 652). Image credit: Andrew Davis, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK; The hands are from: Kamik Witek (potato), Burkhard Steuernagel (wheat) and Kim Wood (soybean).
Crops are made resistant to pathogens such as wheat stem rust, Asian soybean rust and potato late blight by methods to access the pool of resistance genes present in related plants.
A genome smaller than any known natural or reduced genome has been designed, synthesized and shown capable of sustaining self-replication in a free-living environment.
A method for rapid cloning of plant disease-resistance genes could provide sustainable, genetic solutions to crop pests and pathogens in place of agrichemicals.
A method for rapid cloning of plant disease-resistance genes could provide sustainable genetic solutions to crop pests and pathogens in place of agrichemicals.
Soybean is made resistant to Asian soybean rust using a gene cloned from pigeonpea, showing that legumes may contain a reservoir of disease-resistance genes.