Location: Vegetable Crops Research
Project Number: 5090-21220-005-033-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2020
End Date: Jul 31, 2022
Objective:
Objective 1: Use the hyperspectral profile of disease-infected plants prior to symptom development to determine if spectra between pathogens and specific pathogen genotypes are unique.
Objective 2: Identify hyperspectral signatures that differentiate early-responses to pathogens determined by a small number of host genes.
Approach:
The Cooperator has recently refined a hyperspectral imaging approach that uniquely identifies late blight infection 2-4 days prior to symptom development in susceptible potato plants, which discerns between late blight (Phytophthora) and early blight (Alternaria). The work has been conducted in growth chambers with validation in field settings with the US-23 clonal lineage (susceptible to mefenaoxam). Preliminary growth chamber work suggests that US-23 and US-8 (resistant to mefenoxam)generate unique spectral responses. We plan to establish further growth chamber experiments with additional potato genotypes in Wisconsin to elucidate this distinctive spectral response and further validate with in-field late blight trials in East Lansing, Michigan.
Objective 2: A wide variety of germplasm will be used to study differences between basal defense and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) in potato, including disease resistant potato lines that differ in single genes. Some of these genes are involved in basal defense, while others are involved in ETI. All of these lines have been genetically engineered or edited so that they only differ from the parent plant by one, or a few, genes. We will use these lines to identify spectral variation to differentiate responses induced by single genes, or sets of genes, in response to pathogen attack over the course of several days. We plan to utilize P. infestans as our primary pathogen in this system, as many of the genes used in our programs affect late blight resistance. However, in order to verify hyperspectral signatures that are specific for basal defense responses, we will use other pathogens such as A. solani. Hyperspectral features that are conserved between responses to both pathogens will affirm these factors as important hallmarks of specific defense responses.
