Location: Wheat, Sorghum and Forage Research
2020 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Dual resistant transgenic wheat against synergistically interacting Wheat streak mosaic virus and Triticum mosaic virus. Wheat streak mosaic disease complex, caused by Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV), Triticum mosaic virus (TriMV), and High Plains wheat mosaic virus, is the most economically important viral disease of wheat in the Great Plains with about $100 million annual yield loss. Since all three viruses are transmitted by the wheat curl mite, mixed infections in a combination of any two or all three viruses have been reported in growers' fields with reduced yield. WSMV and TriMV synergistically interact in co-infected wheat with increased accumulation of both viruses and with enhanced disease severity. Hence, wheat cultivars with resistance to at least two of the three mite-transmitted viruses would minimize yield loss. ARS researchers at Lincoln, Nebraska, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists developed RNA-interference-based transgenic wheat lines that provided dual resistance to both WSMV and TriMV at 25C or above. However, the transgenic wheat lines were susceptible to WSMV and TriMV at 20C, but both viruses accumulated at significantly lower levels compared to those in nontransgenic wheat. The availability of transgenic wheat lines in this study will facilitate stacking the low temperature-sensitive transgene with high temperature-sensitive Wsm1 or Wsm2 genes to obtain wheat cultivars with dual resistance at a wide range of temperatures, which will benefit wheat growers for the management of wheat streak mosaic disease.
Review Publications
Gupta, A.K., Tatineni, S. 2019. P1 binds to dsRNAs without size and sequence specificity and a GW motif is crucial for suppression of RNA silencing. Viruses. 11(5):472. https://doi.org/10.3390/v11050472.
Gupta, A.K., Tatineni, S. 2019. RNA silencing suppression mechanisms of Triticum mosaic virus P1: dsRNA binding property and mapping functional motifs. Virus Research. 269:197640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2019.197640.
Palmer, N.A., Rekalakunta Venka, C., Muhle, A., Tatineni, S., Yuen, G., Edme, S.J., Mitchell, R., Sarath, G. 2019. Transcriptome divergence during leaf development in two contrasting switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) cultivars. PLoS One. 14(9):e0222080. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222080.
Tatineni, S., Stewart, L.R., Sanfacon, H., Wang, X., Navas-Castillo, J., Hajimorad, R.M. 2020. Fundamental aspects of plant viruses-An overview on focus issue articles. Phytopathology. 110:6-9. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-10-19-0404-FI.
Tatineni, S., Sato, S., Nersesian, N., Alexander, J.A., Quach, T., Graybosch, R.A., Clemente, T.E. 2020. Transgenic wheat harboring an RNAi element confers dual resistance against synergistically interacting wheat streak mosaic virus and triticum mosaic virus. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 33(1):108-122. https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-10-19-0275-R.
