Modified Substrate Proteins for Plant Disease Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for conferring disease resistance to plant pathogens are either time-consuming through conventional breeding, costly with synthetic agrochemicals, or environmentally harmful, and there is a need for more effective compositions and systems to protect plants from specific proteases secreted by pathogens.
Innovation Solution
The development of recombinant nucleic acid molecules encoding modified substrate proteins of plant pathogen-specific proteases with heterologous protease recognition sequences, which, when expressed in plants, can activate NB-LRR proteins to initiate defense responses against specific pathogens, using techniques like stable transformation or transient transformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional breeding techniques are used to control plant diseases, then disease resistance can be achieved, but the process is time-consuming and requires continuous effort to maintain resistance as pathogens evolve
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces pre-engineered substrate proteins with heterologous protease recognition sequences into plants before pathogen infection occurs. These modified substrate proteins are designed to be specifically recognized and cleaved by pathogen-specific proteases, thereby pre-positioning the defense trigger mechanism in place ahead of time, eliminating the need for time-consuming conventional breeding processes
Solution Approach 2:
The invention modifies the recognition sequence parameters of substrate proteins by replacing endogenous protease recognition sequences with heterologous sequences specific to target pathogens. This parameter change in the protein sequence allows the plant's defense system to specifically recognize and respond to particular pathogen proteases, providing targeted resistance without requiring continuous breeding efforts
2Reliability
If synthetic agrochemicals are used to control plant diseases, then disease incidence can be reduced, but costs increase and harmful effects on the ecosystem occur
Solution Approach 1:
The invention enables plants to self-activate their own defense systems by expressing modified substrate proteins that specifically recognize pathogen proteases. When infected, the plant's endogenous NB-LRR proteins detect the cleaved substrate and autonomously initiate defense responses including programmed cell death, eliminating the need for external synthetic agrochemicals and their associated environmental harms
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the harmful action of pathogen proteases (which normally facilitate pathogenesis by cleaving host proteins) into a beneficial signal. The pathogen's own protease activity serves as the trigger that activates the plant's defense system, turning the pathogen's harmful mechanism into the activation signal for plant protection
3Reliability
If transgenic plants express anti-pathogen polypeptides, then pathogen resistance is enhanced, but the complexity of the genetic system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention creates a universal defense platform where modified substrate proteins can be designed to recognize multiple different pathogen-specific proteases by simply changing the heterologous recognition sequence. The same basic mechanism (substrate protein + NB-LRR protein pair) can be applied across different plant-pathogen systems, reducing overall system complexity despite the diversity of targets
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces modified substrate proteins as intermediary molecules that bridge the pathogen's protease activity and the plant's NB-LRR defense proteins. These substrate proteins serve as mediators that translate pathogen-specific protease recognition into activation of the endogenous defense system, simplifying the genetic engineering requirement to just the substrate protein modification rather than direct manipulation of complex NB-LRR pathways
Data Source
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AI summary
Compositions, systems and methods are provided for conferring disease resistance to plant pathogens that use proteases to target plant substrate proteins inside plant cells. Briefly, the compositions, systems and methods are based upon plant substrate proteins that are targeted by pathogen-specific proteases and that activate nucleotide binding site-leucine rich repeat (NB-LRR) disease resistance proteins when cleaved by the protease. These substrate proteins are modified such that the endogenous protease recognition sequence is replaced by a protease recognition sequence specific to a different pathogen protease (i.e., a heterologous protease recognition sequence). The modified plant substrate protein therefore can be used in connection with its corresponding NB-LRR protein to activate resistance in response to cleavage by the heterologous pathogen-specific protease. When activated by the plant pathogen-specific protease, the pair initiates host defense responses thereto, including programmed cell death.