Two complementary NLRs from wild emmer wheat confer powdery mildew resistance

  • Zuhuan Yang
  • , Nannan Liu
  • , Xiaoming Xie
  • , Wenxin Wei
  • , Yuhan Bai
  • , Junna Sun
  • , Wei Pan
  • , Jiatian Yang
  • , Weidong Wang
  • , Xiaodong Xie
  • , Muhammad Saqlain
  • , Houyang Kang
  • , Baoyun Li
  • , Zhaorong Hu
  • , Jinying Gou
  • , Weilong Guo
  • , Susheng Song
  • , Jun Ma
  • , Tzion Fahima
  • , Qixin Sun
  • Lina Qiu, Yinghui Li, Chaojie Xie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Powdery mildew is a devastating disease that affects wheat yield and quality globally. Here, we identify a powdery mildew resistance locus MlIW39 from wild emmer wheat through map-based cloning, mutagenesis, and stable genetic transformation. Unlike many other cloned Pm genes, the MlIW39-mediated resistance is conferred by the combined effect of two complementary nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes, encoding a canonical coiled-coil (CC) type NLR protein (MlIW39-R1) and an atypical NLR protein (MlIW39-R2) with an unknown domain (CC-like), respectively. Overexpression of the NLR pair induces cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana, whereas MlIW39-R1 or MlIW39-R2 alone does not. The MlIW39-R1 and MlIW39-R2 proteins physically interact with each other. MlIW39-R1 and MlIW39-R2 likely originate independently and become neighborly located during evolution. Our findings shed light on the significance of NLR pairs in plant immunity and can facilitate wheat disease-resistance breeding using the developed MlIW39 introgression lines and functional marker.

Original languageEnglish
Article number9041
JournalNature Communications
Volume16
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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