A new roadmap for the breeding of disease-resistant and high-yield crops

Yiming Wang,Suomeng Dong

doi:10.1007/s44154-021-00023-0

Abstract

Breeding of disease-resistant and high-yield crops is essential to meet the increasing food demand of the global population. However, the breeding of such crops remains a significant challenge for scientists and breeders. Two recent discoveries may help to overcome this challenge: the discovery of a novel molecular framework to fine-tune disease resistance and yields that includes epigenetic regulation of antagonistic immune receptors, and the discovery of a Ca2+ sensor-mediated immune repression network that enables the transfer of subspecies-specific and broad-spectrum disease resistance. These breakthroughs provide a promising roadmap for the future breeding of disease resistant crops.

Highlights

Global food production needs to increase by at least 60% to meet the food demand of the estimated global population of 10 billion people in 2050 (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2019)
Transgenic rice plants expressing Pigm Resistant (PigmR) significantly increased their resistance against the rice blast fungus and showed yield penalty
(2021) 1:21 et al further noticed that the expression of Pigm Susceptible (PigmS) under native promoters did not affect disease resistance mediated by PigmR, suggesting that the expression pattern may be essential for the function of PigmS

Summary

Introduction

Global food production needs to increase by at least 60% to meet the food demand of the estimated global population of 10 billion people in 2050 (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2019). Improving crop resistance to pathogens and pests is challenging, since host resistance is frequently accompanied by growth disadvantage and yield penalty, which is known as the defense-growth tradeoff (Yang et al, 2012). Zuhua He’s group, from the CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, study the mechanistic interaction between resistance and yield and aim to find a balanced solution for crop breeding.

Results

Conclusion