Location: Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research
Project Number: 8062-22000-023-027-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2025
End Date: Aug 31, 2026
Objective:
The objectives of this project include 1) Evaluating the efficacy of exogenous nanocarrier-dsRNA application in reducing nematode infection using greenhouse bioassays and 2) obtaining a high quality whole genome sequence of a Solanum boliviense clone that confers broad-spectrum resistance to potato cyst nematodes.
Approach:
Greenhouse bioassays will be conducted to validate the effect of ZIF-8-dsRNA application in reducing nematode infection. Potato plants will be grown in pots, and a solution of ZIF8-encapsulated dsRNA targeting essential nematode genes will be applied to the pot soil daily for one week before nematode inoculation. Untreated and naked dsRNA (unencapsulated)-treated plants will be included as controls and each treatment contains 10-20 plants. A final count of Columbia root-knot nematode egg numbers will be used to determine the efficacy of RNAi delivered by ZIF8-dsRNA. Additionally, for whole genome sequencing, high quality genome assembly of the S. boliviense clone will be carried out using PacBio HiFi long read sequencing technology and be assembled using Hifiasm and HiCanu. The assembled genome will remapped to the potato reference genome for chromosome level assembly. The genome will be subjected to gene prediction and functional annotation using available Solanum sp annotations and pipelines like Maker, BRAKER and eggNOG-mapper. Furthermore, potential resistance genes will be identified from the predicted genes based on their domain structures (LRR, Kinase, NBS and TIR domains) using Drago2 pipeline. Genes encoding LRR and NBS domains are of particular interest, since the majority of R-genes encode a LRR and NBS domain.