From plant immunity to crop disease resistance

Yan Zhao; Xiaobo Zhu; Xuewei Chen; Jian-Min Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.jgg.2022.06.003

From plant immunity to crop disease resistance

J Genet Genomics. 2022 Aug;49(8):693-703. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2022.06.003. Epub 2022 Jun 18.

Authors

Yan Zhao¹, Xiaobo Zhu², Xuewei Chen³, Jian-Min Zhou⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Sichuan Agricultural University at Wenjiang, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Sichuan Agricultural University at Wenjiang, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, China. Electronic address: xwchen88@163.com.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya, Hainan 572025, China. Electronic address: jmzhou@genetics.ac.cn.

PMID: 35728759
DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2022.06.003

Abstract

Plant diseases caused by diverse pathogens lead to a serious reduction in crop yield and threaten food security worldwide. Genetic improvement of plant immunity is considered as the most effective and sustainable approach to control crop diseases. In the last decade, our understanding of plant immunity at both molecular and genomic levels has improved greatly. Combined with advances in biotechnologies, particularly clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9-based genome editing, we can now rapidly identify new resistance genes and engineer disease-resistance crop plants like never before. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of plant immunity and outline existing and new strategies for disease resistance improvement in crop plants. We also discuss existing challenges in this field and suggest directions for future studies.

Keywords: Crops; Disease resistance; Genetic engineering; Molecular breeding; Plant immunity; Resistance genes.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

CRISPR-Cas Systems*
Crops, Agricultural
Disease Resistance*
Gene Editing
Genome, Plant