Alleles of a wall‐associated kinase gene account for three of the major northern corn leaf blight resistance loci in maize

• DOI: 10.1111/tpj.15183
• Publication Date: 2021-02-06T00:35:55Z
• Authors: Ping Yang; Daniela Scheuermann; Bettina Kessel; Teresa Koller; Julian R. Greenwood; Severine Hurni; Gerhard Herren; Shenghui Zhou; William Marande; Thomas Wicker; Simon G. Krattinger; Milena Ouzunova; Beat Keller
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; NCLB; ZmWAK‐ Plant Science; 580 Plants (Botany); Htn1; Genes, Plant; Zea mays; 1307 Cell Biology; resistance; 03 medical and health sciences; 10126 Department of Plant and Microbial Biology; 1311 Genetics; Ascomycota; 1110 Plant Science; Genetics; [SDV.BV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology; 10211 Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center; Alleles; Disease Resistance; Plant Diseases; Plant Proteins; 2. Zero hunger; WAKs; Phosphotransferases; Chromosome Mapping; Cell Biology; ZmWAK-RLK1; Plant Leaves; RLK1; Ht2; Ht3

Northern corn leaf blight, caused by the fungal pathogen Setosphaeria turcica (anamorph Exserohilum turcicum), is one of most devastating foliar diseases maize (Zea mays). Four genes Ht1, Ht2, Ht3 and Htn1 represent major sources genetic resistance against hemibiotrophic fungus S. turcica. Differential lines containing these also form basis to classify races. Here, we show that Ht2 are identical allelic previously cloned gene. Using a map-based cloning approach Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes (TILLING), demonstrate Ht2/Ht3 an allele wall-associated receptor-like kinase gene ZmWAK-RLK1. The ZmWAK-RLK1 variants encoded differ multiple amino acid polymorphisms particularly affect putative extracellular domain. A diversity analysis revealed presence dozens alleles. have been described over decades as independent loci with different race spectra responses. Our work demonstrates three allelic, which has implications for northern blight breeding nomenclature pathotypes. We hypothesize background effects confounded classical description disease past.