SBIR Phase I: Identification of disease resistance traits to improve the productivity and sustainability of soybean cultivation

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve the productivity and environmental sustainability of soybean cultivation. Soybean is the most widely grown crop in the United States with nearly 90 million acres under cultivation. Soybean is a key part of the food system and generates $22 billion in export revenue each year. One of the greatest threats to soybean production is the fungal pathogen known as Asian Soybean Rust. Current commercial soybean varieties have no resistance to this pathogen and over $2 billion is spent annually on fungicides to control this disease. While soybean is highly susceptible to this disease, many wild plant species have natural resistance to this pathogen. This project seeks to identify the naturally occurring mechanisms of disease resistance in wild plant species that can be used to develop disease-resistant soybean varieties. Adoption of these varieties is expected to bring more than $4 billion in value to the soybean industry while improving productivity and reducing fungicide use. The intellectual merit of this SBIR Phase I project is to identify plant immune receptor proteins that confer disease resistance to Asian Soybean Rust, which is caused by the fungal pathogen Phakopsora pachyrhizi. A key determinant of whether or not a plant is resistant to a particular pathogen is whether the plant has an appropriate immune receptor protein capable of recognizing the presence of the invading pathogen. Once activated, plant immune receptors trigger plant defense responses that typically result in immunity. This project will use reverse genetic and biochemical approaches to identify plant immune receptor proteins that confer resistance to Asian Soybean Rust. Preliminary work identified several molecules from Phakopsora that elicit an immune response in non-host plant species. The goal is to identify the cognate immune receptors and test them for sufficiency to enable immune activation in response to Asian Soybean Rust elicitor molecules. This research will enable future work to the development soybean varieties with resistance to Asian Soybean Rust. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.