SBIR Phase II: Developing Crop Plants with Wide-Spectrum Disease Resistance

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on developing genetically engineered, broad -spectrum disease resistance in plants. An Aribdopsis transcription factor, TDR1, has been identified that causes resistance to three pathogens when overexpressed in transgenic plants. However, constitutive expression of TDR1 or any of three related genes causes growth retardation. Phase I research demonstrated that using tissue specific or inducible promoters to drive the TDR1 genes confers resistance with reduced side-effects. The research objectives of the Phase II project are to test the limits of TDR technology by assaying a broad range of pathogens, optimize the TDR phenotype by mutagenesis, demonstrate TDR function in a crop plant (tomato), and use microarray analysis to correlate gene expression patterns with specific pathogen resistance spectra in Arabidopsis. The results will establish the commercial utility of TDR technology. The commercial application of this research will be to engineer wide-spectrum disease resistance in crops such as soybean and maize. Chemically based disease management is expensive, harmful to people and the environment, and not always effective. Breeding has long been used for developing resistant cultivars, but the gene pool is limited by reproductive barriers, the technique is slow, and the resistance is generally narrow in scope and often not durable. There clearly is a market for genetically-engineered, durable disease resistance. The main societal benefit of this project is expected to be a decrease in the use of toxic fungicides, which will positively impact the environment and human health.