A Systems Approach to Disease Resistance Against Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens

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Food security is currently a major research challenge and the yield and economic losses associated with plant diseases continue to have a great impact on our ability to ensure the production of good quality vegetable crops. Reducing the inputs required for production is a high priority for increasing the sustainability of food production. This project aims to address this by identifying and mapping novel alleles associated with increased resistance to Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in lettuce. New genetic resources, markers and the knowledge generated in this research will accelerate the ability of the industry partner A.L. Tozer and other breeders to develop commercially acceptable lettuce cultivars incorporating this valuable resistance trait. This will result in significant economic gains for both growers and breeders as well as environmental benefits. For UK growers, a 50% reduction in disease due to B. cinerea/S. sclerotiorum would save at least £10M p.a. given an average crop loss of 10%. As more than 90% of UK lettuce crops (22,000 ha) are treated with fungicides targeted at these pathogens (2-3 sprays per crop), a 50% reduction in these applications due to the deployment of more resistant lettuce cultivars would result in total savings of >£7.1M p.a. Moreover, there would also be a concomitant reduction in pathogen inoculum (particularly a reduction in sclerotia returned to the soil by S. sclerotiorum) which would benefit disease management in many of the other susceptible crops in rotations. The associated environmental benefits would therefore include a reduction in crop waste, and more efficient use of resources and inputs such as land, water, pesticides and fuel. Consumers would also then have access to good quality lettuce grown in a more sustainable way.
Crucially, demonstration of network analysis as a successful method for gene discovery in a horticultural crop would provide a framework for similar approaches in other crops, and even, if key disease resistance genes are conserved, candidate genes to immediately test. Collaboration with East Malling Research (transformation of diploid strawberry) and Syngenta (the SAMUTAGENE tomato TILLING population) will be sought to build on our results in lettuce and initiate direct testing of hub genes in strawberry and tomato. We will also exploit the Brassica resources available at Warwick in further funding applications. B. cinerea and S. sclerotiorum are pathogens with wide host ranges, hence the potential applicability of our generated data and approach is applicable to a broad range of crops. Integration of our systems knowledge with existing QTL phenotyping can accelerate the identification of other beneficial alleles.
An important aspect of our proposed research is the training that the PDRA on the project would receive. Warwick is recognised for its expertise in interdisciplinary training and the Systems Biology MSc and Doctoral Training Centre have successfully trained biologists, mathematicians, and computer scientists to be systems biologists working in an interdisciplinary manner. The PDRA would be exposed to this environment, have the opportunity to take modules of the various MSc courses at Warwick (including Systems Biology, Food Security, and Sustainable Crop Production) and also receive training in various transferable skills.
The next generation of young scientists will benefit from knowledge gained from this project and learning about the combined experimental and theoretical approaches used to add value to crop research. Furthermore, the integration of up to date network analysis with applied crop science is likely to catch the imagination of students from high school to undergraduate level and help spark interest in plant science. It is essential we build interest in plant science amongst young people if we are to build a generation of capable of meeting the global food security challenge.