PAG-I Plant Genome I Conference

Town & Country Conference Center, San Diego, CA, November, 1992.


PG-I: 54pg1

MAPPING AND TAGGING HOST GENES INVOLVED IN LEGUME/MICROBE INTERACTIONS.

N. Weeden 1, J. Lu 1, S. Temnykh 1, G. Timmerman 2, C. Simon 3, B. Kneen 1, R. Provvidenti 4, F. Muehlbauer 3, and T. LaRue 5, 1 Dept. of Hort. Sci. and 4 Dept of Plant Path, Cornell Univ, Geneva NY, 2 New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research Ltd, Lincoln, New Zealand, 3 USDA/ARS, 215 Johnson Hall, Pullman, WA, 99164, and 5 Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY 14853


Genes involved in disease resistance and nitrogen fixation are being mapped in several legume species to examine their distribution, homology, and mechanism of action. A relatively saturated linkage map is available for pea, and conserved linkage groups comprising about 40% of the pea map have been identified in lentil and chickpea. Over 20 genes or gene families directly affecting modulation phenotype have been mapped in pea. Several of these genes cluster in a small region on chromosome 1, and we have identified numerous RAPD markers in this region. Lectins have been implicated in host/Rhizobium recognition. At least two mutants have been identified that alter pea/Rhizobium strain specificity, but neither appears to be a result of changes in the lectin genes. Tags for nine genes conferring virus resistance as well as a gene conferring resistance to powdery mildew have been dentified in pea. Some of these genes are located in linkage groups conserved in lentil and chickpea. Should similar resistance genes in lentil be mapped to the corresponding linkage group, it would strongly suggest that the two genes are homologous. Conversely, if the resistance gene in lentil maps to a different linkage group, we would tentatively assume the two genes are not homologous and may act through different mechanisms.


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