Sabrina Morrison 'Exploring disease resistance gene candidates in wild rice'

Sabrina Morrison PhD Student, The University of Queensland ABSTRACT Crop diseases pose a significant and persistent threat to global food production. Introducing novel genetic resistance remains the most economical and ecological approach for combating evolving biotic pressures in most crop systems. The wild relatives of crops demonstrate natural resistance against a broad range of pathogen strains and therefore offer largely untapped reservoirs of novel disease resistance genes that can be introgressed into cultivated varieties. Disease resistance genes in plants possess highly conserved structural domains and motifs, meaning that they can be identified within genomic regions using insilico prediction tools. The recent generation of high-quality genome assemblies for almost all of the Oryza species has facilitated the exploration of resistance gene analogues within the wild relatives of rice. This webinar explores the diversity of these novel resistance gene candidates and highlights how comparative genomics can guide efforts to discover and deploy new sources of resistance in breeding programs. This seminar was recorded as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture webinar series.