Plant Genome IV Conference Plant Genome IV Conference
The plant disease resistance gene RPM1 from Arabidopsis is functionally analogous to the RPG1 gene of Soybean. Both genes confer resistance to strains of the bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae that carry the avrB avirulence gene (i.e. both resistance genes have the same specificity). We would like to determine whether RPG1 and RPM1 are orthologous genes, or if this specificity is the result of convergent evolution. If the former is true, we may be able to use the RPM1 gene clone as a hybridization probe to isolate RPG1 from soybean. We have isolated several genomic DNA clones from both bean and soybean libraries that hybridize to RPM1 under low stringency conditions. These probes are currently being mapped relative to RPG1 using RFLP analysis.