Researchers have traced the remaining last steps of the biological pathway that gives oats resistance to the deadly crop disease take-all.

The discovery creates opportunities for new ways of defending wheat and other cereals against the soil-borne root disease.

The research team have already taken the first step in this aim by successfully reconstituting the self-defence system in the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana.

Further experiments to establish the avenacin biosynthetic pathway in wheat’s more complex genome, to test if it will provide the same resistance to take-all and other diseases, have already been initiated in collaboration with the National Institute of Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge.

The research by CEPAMS — a collaboration between the John Innes Centre and the Chinese Academy of Sciences — also delivers fresh insights into the mechanisms that shape genome architecture and adaptive evolution in plants.

Avenacins are antimicrobial compounds synthesised in the roots of oats where they offer protection against soil-borne diseases such as take-all. This fungal pathogen causes huge yield losses in wheat and there is no effective means of control.

Story Source:
Materials provided by John Innes Centre. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.