Location: Plant Gene Expression Center
2022 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Small RNAs with a big impact on plant immunity. Pathogen diseases are a major threat to sustainable and productive agriculture worldwide. Pathogen diseases are naturally controlled by resistance (R) receptors for pathogen recognition triggered resistance, whereas viral defense is primarily controlled by a host mechanism of small RNA guided degradation of viral RNA as well as resistance mechanisms. The discovery of plant small microRNAs targeting and regulating disease resistance receptors highlighted the regulatory relationship between these plant defense mechanisms. A better understanding of mechanisms regulating plant defense gene expression is needed. An ARS scientist in Albany, California, in collaboration with scientists at Huazhong Agricultural University, China, and the University of Wisconsin Madison, discovered a new miRNA mechanism that regulates expression of plant disease resistance genes and an RNA silencing pathway gene. The discovery of a new class of miRNAs that regulate disease resistance genes and a gene in RNA silencing advances understanding of innate immunity regulation and underscores the proposed evolutionary and regulatory relationship between silencing and innate immunity.
