Plant, Animal & Microbe Genomes X Conference Plant, Animal & Microbe Genomes X ConferenceJanuary 12-16, 2002
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA
Poster: Genome Sequencing & ESTs
Karnal bunt (KB; Tilletia indica Mitra) was discovered in 1930 near the town Karnal, India. It is a smut fungus that infects wheat kernels. Wheat that is infected by the fungus is restricted by severe national and international quarantines. The most recent outbreak of KB in Texas (2001) has resulted in widespread concerns regarding infected wheat and the impact on U. S. wheat export markets and germplasm movement. KB infection is highly affected by environmental conditions and no complete resistance or chemical applications are available to control the pathogen. The objective of this study is to identify genes that have are regulated during the process of KB infection. We have constructed a wheat spike EST cDNA subtraction library enriched for genes associated with KB resistance by subtracting spike mRNA of un-inoculated WL711 (susceptible) from HD29 (resistant). The library contains 455 singletons in which 323 were found to be unique. Approximately 50% of the singletons identified were indicated to be of unknown function or have no significant alignment using BLASTX. Macroarrays of the singletons were hybridized with cDNA from KB infected HD29 and WL711 spike tissue 0, 24, and 48 hours post-inoculation. Genes associated with resistance will then be further investigated for marker construction and utilization in marker assisted selection programs to enrich U.S. wheat germplasms from KB resistance.