Transformation of the flax rust fungus, Melampsora lini: selection via silencing of an avirulence gene.

ABSTRACT: Rust fungi cause devastating diseases on many important food crops, with a damaging stem rust epidemic currently affecting wheat production in Africa and the Middle East. These parasitic fungi propagate exclusively on plants, precluding the use of many biotechnological tools available for other culturable fungi. In particular the lack of a stable transformation system has been an impediment to the genetic manipulation required for molecular analysis of rust pathogenicity. We have developed an Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation procedure for the model flax rust fungus Melampsora lini, which infects flax (Linum usitatissimum). Selection of transgenic rust lines is based on silencing of AvrL567, which encodes a rust effector protein that is recognised by the flax L6 immune receptor

SUBMITTER: Lawrence GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3142615 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature