The Arabidopsis thaliana disease resistance genes RPS2 and RPM1 belong to a class of plant disease resistance genes that encode proteins that contain an N-terminal tripartite nucleotide binding site (NBS) and a C-terminal tandem array of leucine-rich repeats. RPS2 and RPM1 confer resistance to strains of the bacterial phytopathogen Pseudomonas syringae carrying the avirulence genes avrRpt2 and ...

The hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum) adult plant resistance gene, Lr34/Yr18/Sr57/Pm38/Ltn1, provides broad-spectrum resistance to wheat leaf rust (Lr34), stripe rust (Yr18), stem rust (Sr57) and powdery mildew (Pm38) pathogens, and has remained effective in wheat crops for many decades. The partial resistance provided by this gene is only apparent in adult plants and not effective in field-g...

The southern root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, is the most damaging pathogen of cotton in the USA. Host-plant resistance to root-knot nematodes is an effective means of reducing crop losses and reducing nematode population levels in a field. Resistance to plantparasitic nematodes refers to the suppressive effect of the plant on the nematode’s ability to reproduce; tolerance describes t...

Efficient water resource management in relation to water use and crop yields is premised on the knowledge of plant resistance to water flow. However, such studies are limited and for most crops, the within plant resistance to water flow remains largely unknown. In this study, within plant resistance to water transport (hydraulic conductance) was monitored in tomato (Lycopersicum esculuntum) and...

Between-population crosses may replenish genetic variation of populations, but may also result in outbreeding depression. Apart from direct effects on plant fitness, these outbreeding effects can also alter plant-herbivore interactions by influencing plant tolerance and resistance to herbivory. We investigated effects of experimental within- and between-population outbreeding on herbivore resis...

a study was conducted to assess the durable resistance in a near isogenic line of spring wheat (triticum aestivalis l.), possessing resistance gene yr-18 to some isolates (race specific resistance) of stripe rust (puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici), namely thatcher yr-18 and durable resistance of an cultivar of spring wheat to all isolates of stripe rust (race non- specific resistance), namel...

Inducible plant resistance against herbivores is becoming a paradigm of plant–herbivore ecology. Fundamental to understanding induced resistance and its evolutionary ecology is specificity of ‘‘induction’’ and ‘‘effects’’. Specificity in the induction of resistance refers to whether plant damage by various herbivores causes the same response in plants. Specificity in the effects of induced resi...

Plant disease resistance loci have been used successfully in breeding programs to transfer traits from resistant germplasm to susceptible plant cultivars. The molecular cloning of plant disease resistance genes now permits the transfer of such traits across species boundaries by genetic transformation of recipient hosts. The tomato disease resistance gene Pto confers resistance to strains of th...

During systemic infections, viruses move long distances through the plant vascular system. The long-distance movement of cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) in Arabidopsis has been examined using a whole plant in situ hybridization technique called plant skeleton hybridization. CaMV moves long distance through the phloem largely following the flow of photoassimilates from source to sink leaves. Dur...

For many years, research on a suite of plant defense responses that begin when plants are exposed to general microbial elicitors was underappreciated, for a good reason: There has been no critical experimental demonstration of their importance in mediating plant resistance during pathogen infection. Today, these microbial elicitors are named pathogen- or microbe-associated molecular patterns (P...