An unusual tandem kinase fusion protein confers leaf rust resistance in wheat

Wang, Yajun and Abrouk, Michael and Gourdoupis, Spyridon and Koo, Dal-Hoe and Karafiátová, Miroslava and Molnár, István and Holušová, Kateřina and Doležel, Jaroslav and Athiyannan, Naveenkumar and Cavalet-Giorsa, Emile and Jaremko, Łukasz and Poland, Jesse and Krattinger, Simon G. (2023) An unusual tandem kinase fusion protein confers leaf rust resistance in wheat. NATURE GENETICS, 55. pp. 914-920. ISSN 1061-4036 (print); 1546-1718 (online)

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Abstract

The introgression of chromosome segments from wild relatives is an established strategy to enrich crop germplasm with disease-resistance genes1. Here we use mutagenesis and transcriptome sequencing to clone the leaf rust resistance gene Lr9, which was introduced into bread wheat from the wild grass species Aegilops umbellulata2. We established that Lr9 encodes an unusual tandem kinase fusion protein. Long-read sequencing of a wheat Lr9 introgression line and the putative Ae. umbellulata Lr9 donor enabled us to assemble the ~28.4-Mb Lr9 translocation and to identify the translocation breakpoint. We likewise cloned Lr58, which was reportedly introgressed from Aegilops triuncialis3, but has an identical coding sequence compared to Lr9. Cytogenetic and haplotype analyses corroborate that the two genes originate from the same translocation event. Our work sheds light on the emerging role of kinase fusion proteins in wheat disease resistance, expanding the repertoire of disease-resistance genes for breeding.

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