A membrane associated tandem kinase from wild emmer wheat confers broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildew

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47497-w
• Publication Date: 2024-04-10T19:01:34Z
• Authors: Miaomiao Li; Huaizhi Zhang; Huixin Xiao; Keyu Zhu; Wenqi Shi; Dong Zhang; Yong Wang; Lijun Yang; Qiuhong Wu; Jingzhong Xie; Yongxing Chen; Dan Qiu; Guanghao Guo; Ping Lu; Beibei Li; Lei Dong; Wenling Li; Xuejia Cui; Lingchuan Li; Xiubin Tian; Chengguo Yuan; Yiwen Li; Dazhao Yu; Eviatar Nevo; Tzion Fahima; Hongjie Li; Lingli Dong; Yusheng Zhao; Zhiyong Liu
• Keywords: Protein kinase domain

Abstract Crop wild relatives offer natural variations of disease resistance for crop improvement. Here, we report the isolation broad-spectrum powdery mildew gene Pm36 , originated from emmer wheat, that encodes a tandem kinase with transmembrane domain (WTK7-TM) through combination map-based cloning, PacBio SMRT long-read genome sequencing, mutagenesis, and transformation. Mutagenesis assay reveals two domains WTK7-TM are critical function. Consistently, in vitro phosphorylation shows indispensable activity WTK7-TM. Haplotype analysis uncovers is an orphan only present few indicating its single ancient origin potential contribution to current wheat pool. Overall, our findings not provide great breeding but also sheds light into mechanism underlying resistance.