brande.wulff@kaust.edu.sa

Our lab studies the resistance of wheat to its major diseases with a focus on the rusts (www.wulfflab.org). Over the last decade we have developed methods and resources for accelerated resistance (R) gene discovery and cloning in wheat and its wild relatives. I will provide an update on our expanded Aegilops tauschii sequence-configured resource which includes 500 re-sequenced lines and 46 high-quality genomes developed under the aegis of the Open Wild Wheat Consortium (www.openwildwheat.org). In collaboration with the group of Simon Krattinger we have used this resource for R gene cloning and to elucidate wheat domestication.

To our surprise, many of the wheat R genes that we cloned turned out to encode kinase fusion proteins (e.g. WTK4, Sr43, Sr62, Rwt4 and Lr39). Focusing on Sr43 and Sr62, we have collaborated with the group of Peter Dodds to identify and clone genetic interactors and used these to elucidate kinase fusion protein mechanism.

The wealth of cloned wheat rust R genes presents exciting opportunities for engineering resistance into elite wheat cultivars. However, we know precious little about the resistance spectrum of most of these genes, a prerequisite for the judicious design of multi-R gene stacks.

Therefore, we are using transgenesis to develop a true isogene library of cloned rust R genes that can be used to faithfully test the resistance spectrum of individual genes. We hope these efforts will support ongoing work to engineer super wheat strains with durable triple rust resistance.