Bioengineering immune receptors for potato blight resistance

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Alain Tissier
• Subject Area: Plant Breeding and Plant Pathology ; Plant Physiology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 552696940

FIGHTBLIGHT is an innovative and goal-oriented project aimed at combating potato late blight, the most formidable challenge to global potato production. Our goal is to introduce new traits for disease resistance that would revolutionize how we protect potatoes from this devastating disease. The project has three main objectives: 1. BIOENGINEERING: Develop solanaceous immune decoy receptors (NLR-ID) sca!olds to combat the highly virulent strains of the potato late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans found in the field. This work package is led by Sophien Kamoun at The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) in the UK. 2. CISGENICS: Utilize exonuclease-endonuclease fusions for precise genetic engineering, including targeted insertions and replacements of conventional integrated domains/decoys (IDs) with innovative IDs. This process will deliver engineered NLR-IDs created in objective 1 through a cisgenic approach, overseen by Alain Tissier at the Leibniz Institute in Germany. 3. PATHOLOGY: Test cisgenic potato varieties equipped with the newly engineered NLR-ID receptors for durable resistance in both controlled environments and field trials against epidemic strains of Phytophthora infestans. This activity will be led by Silvia Restrepo at the Boyce Thompson Institute in the US. Our central hypothesis is that by engineering NLR-ID sca!olds to include e!ector targets of P. infestans, we can activate specific immune receptors and achieve disease resistance. This proposal builds on prior research demonstrating the potential for shu"ing NLR-Ids with unconventional e!ector targets, plant-derived domains, and nanobodies, introducing unprecedented functionalities into the plant immune system. The timing for FIGHTBLIGHT could not be better. Advances in gene-editing technology now permit e#cient, scar-free targeted insertions and genetic modifications over extensive sequences. By the end of this grant, we will have developed novel cisgenic traits and gathered field data demonstrating robust resistance to P. infestans. FIGHTBLIGHT aligns perfectly with the research theme of "Programmable Plants", as we seek to bioengineer potatoes with new characteristics that enable them to withstand blight. This project stands as a pioneering example of how Gene Editing (GE) and cisgenic approaches can o!er solutions to crop diseases, potentially setting a new standard for agricultural biotechnology.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom, USA
• Partner Organisation: Biotechnology und Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Sophien Kamoun, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Silvia Restrepo