Plant & Animal Genomes XVI Conference

January 12-16, 2008
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Characterization And Functional Analysis Of The Barley Rpr1 Gene

Ling Zhang¹ , Jayaveeramuthu Nirmala¹ , Tom Drader² , Robert Brueggeman¹ , Upinder Gill¹ , Kulvinder Gill¹ , Andris Kleinhofs^1,2

¹  Washington State University Department of Crop and Soil Sciences Pullman, WA 99164-6420 USA

²  Washington State University School of Molecular Biosciences Pullman, WA 99164-6420 USA

In barley, resistance to Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici pathotype MCC requires the presence of at least two host genes, Rpg1 and Rpr1. Mutational analysis and transcript-based cloning were used to isolate 3 candidate Rpr1 genes. Here we report the sequencing of deleted regions encompassing HU03D17U_s_at and Contig4901_s_at. Comparison between genomic DNA and cDNA sequences revealed 3 alternative splice forms for HU03D17_s_at, and 2 alternative splice forms for Contig4901_s_at. The third candidate gene Contig7061_s_at encodes a 321aa serine/threonine protein kinase and is represented by a single transcript. A reverse genetics tool, barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV)-based virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) was applied to investigate their function in disease resistance. Preliminary data showed that infection with BSMV constructs carrying a 334bp fragment of Contig7061_s_at caused conversion of incompatible interactions to compatible, while plants infected with a control construct remained resistant to Pgt-MCC. Therefore, Contig7061_s_at represents a strong candidate for the Rpr1 gene.