| This project going to be… | Experimental (lab/field based) |
| Email | sanu.arora@jic.ac.uk |
| Position held | Group Leader |
| Title of Project | Characterizing genetic resistance to pea root-rot disease using diverse germplasm collection |
| Institution Department and Address | John Innes Centre |
| Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7UH |
| United Kingdom |
| Full Name of Supervisor | Sanu Arora |
| Date of Project Commencement | 01/07/2023 |
| Duration (weeks) | 8 |
| Brief Description of Project | Due to the demand in meat-alternatives as well as their nutritional benefits, legumes like pea have become increasingly popular as a cash crop. However, a major constraint to worldwide pulse production is a soil-borne pathogen complex mainly consisting of Aphanomyces euteiches, Fusarium ssp., Pythium spp. and Rhizoctonia solani. causing symptoms of damping-off, seedling blight and root rot. This leads to typical yield losses of 30%, while severe disease can destroy entire harvests. A lack of effective chemical control methods makes genetic resistance the most promising method, however, only partial resistance has been identified and the underlying genetic factors remain to be elucidated. Utilising our diverse collection of pea pathogens, the applicant will work with A. euteiches, an oomycete with a wide host-range which has been reported to be a serious issue in major pea-producing countries. To identify and characterise sources of resistance to root rot pathogens, the student will utilise the genetically diverse and sequenced Pisum collection (700 accessions) available at the John Innes Centre. For this, we developed high-throughput phenotyping approaches supported by elucidation of infection progression through fluorescence microscopy. The applicant will have the opportunity to utilise these as well as bioinformatic pipelines for Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and Association genetics with R gene enrichment sequencing (AgRenSeq) to characterise the pea-Aphanomyces pathosystem. The candidate will gain valuable experience in working in a plant-pathology setting and will also have the option to apply the learned techniques onto other members of the root rot complex like the oomycete Pythium ultimum, the causal agent of damping-off. |
| Attach the recommended reading for the project | [1] Processors and Growers Research Organisation (https://www.pgro.org/) |
| [2] Kraft, J.M. and F.L. Pfleger, Compendium of pea diseases and pests. 2001: American Phytopathological Society (APS Press). |
| [3] Arora, S., et al., Resistance gene cloning from a wild crop relative by sequence capture and association genetics. Nature biotechnology, 2019. 37(2): p. 139-143. |
| [4] Wu, L., et al., Aphanomyces euteiches: a threat to Canadian field pea production. Engineering, 2018. 4(4): p. 542-551. |
