Technology

Centre : Central Potato Research Institute(CPRI)
Name of the technology :
Development of RNAi technology for management of late blight

Inventors

  1. D Pattanayak
  2. Sundaresha S
  3. BP Singh
  4. Sanjeev Sharma
  5. Suman Sanju
  6. Aditi Thakur

Procedure / Summary :

RNA interference (RNAi) has proved a powerful genetic tool for silencing genes in plants. Host-induced gene silencing of pathogen genes has provided a gene knockout strategy for a wide range of biotechnological applications. The RXLR effector Avr3a gene is largely responsible for virulence of oomycete plant pathogen Phytophthora infestans. We attempted to silence the Avr3a gene of P. infestans through RNAi technology. The P. infestans inoculation resulted in lower disease progression and a reduction in pathogen load, as demonstrated by disease scoring and quantification of pathogen biomass in terms of Pi08 repetitive elements, respectively. Transgenic plants induced moderate silencing of Avr3a, and the presence and/or expression of small interfering RNAs, as determined through Northern hybridization, indicated siRNA targeted against Avr3a conferred moderate resistance to P. infestans. The single effector gene did not provide complete resistance against P. infestans. Although the Avr3a effector gene could confer moderate resistance, for complete resistance, the cumulative effect of effector genes in addition to Avr3a needs to be considered. In this study, we demonstrated that host-induced RNAi is an effective strategy for functional genomics in oomycetes.

Applications

Development of late blight resistant varieties.

Advantages

Development of late blight resistant varieties.

Status of Commercialization : Not applicable

Publications

  1. 1. Thakur Aditi, Sanju Suman, Sundaresha S, Srivastava Nidhi, Shukla Pradeep K, Pattanayak Debasis, Sharma Sanjeev and Singh BP. 2015. Artificial microRNA mediated gene silencing of Phytophthora infestans single effector Avr3a gene imparts moderate type of late blight resistance in potato. Plant Pathol J 14 (1): 1-12 (DOI:10.3923/ppj.2015).
  2. 2. Sanju Suman, Siddappa Sundaresha, Thakur Aditi, Shukla Pradeep K, Srivastava Nidhi, Pattanayak D, Sharma Sanjeev and Singh BP. 2015. Host-mediated gene silencing of a single effector gene from the potato pathogen Phytophthora infestans imparts partial resistance to late blight disease. Funct Integr Genomics15: 697-706 DOI 10.1007/s10142-015-0446-z.
  3. 3. Sanju Suman, Thakur Aditi, Siddappa Sundaresha, Sharma Sanjeev, Shukla Pradeep Kumar, Srivastava Nidhi, Pattanayak Debasis and Singh Bir Pal. 2016. In-vitro detached leaf assay of host-mediated RNAi lines carrying Phytophthora infestans Avr3a effector gene for late blight resistance. Potato J 43(1): 30-37