Polynucleotides and methods for making plants resistant to fungal pathogens

Abstract

This invention relates to polynucleotide sequences encoding a gene that can confer resistance to the plant pathogen Colletotrichum, which causes anthracnose stalk rot, leaf blight and top dieback in corn and other cereals. It further relates to plants and seeds of plants carrying chimeric genes comprising said polynucleotide sequences, which enhance or confer resistance to the plant pathogen Colletotrichum, and processes of making said plants and seeds. The invention further presents sequences that can be used as molecular markers that in turn can be used to identify the region of interest in corn lines resulting from new crosses and to quickly and efficiently introgress the gene from corn lines carrying said gene into other corn lines that do not carry said gene, in order to make them resistant to Colletotrichum and resistant to stalk rot.

1 . A process of identifying a corn plant that displays newly conferred or enhanced resistance to  Colletotrichum  infection, the process comprising detecting in the corn plant alleles of at least two markers, wherein at least one of said markers is on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC2041 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least one of said markers is on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2200.  
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of said markers is on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC1086 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least one of said markers is on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2200.  
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of said markers is on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC2285 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least one of said markers is on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2187.  
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of said markers is within the chromosomal interval below UMC2285 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least one of said markers is within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC15a.  
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 4 , further comprising selecting for at least four markers, wherein at least two of said markers are within the chromosomal interval below UMC2285 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least two of said markers are within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC15a.  
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of said markers is on or within SEQ ID NO.137, wherein the at least one marker is capable of detecting a polymorphism located at a position selected from the group consisting of: 
 (a) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 7230 and 7535;    (b) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 11293 and 12553;    (c) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 25412 and 29086; and    (d) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 43017 and 50330.    
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one marker on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC2041 and above the Rcg1 gene is selected from the markers listed in Table 16, and wherein at least one marker on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2200 is selected from the markers listed in Table 16.  
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising selecting for at least four markers, wherein at least two of said markers are on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC2041 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least two of said markers are on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2200.  
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 8 , wherein the at least two markers on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC2041 and above the Rcg1 gene are selected from the markers listed in Table 16, and wherein the at least two markers on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2200 are selected from the markers listed in Table 16.  
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising selecting for at least six markers, wherein at least three of said markers are on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC2041 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least three of said markers are on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2200.  
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 10 , wherein the at least three markers on or within the chromosomal interval below UMC2041 and above the Rcg1 gene are selected from the markers listed in Table 16, and wherein the at least three markers on or within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC2200 are selected from the markers listed in Table 16.  
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the process further comprises detecting at least two or more of (a) allele 7 at MZA11123, (b) allele 2 at MZA2591, and (c) allele 8 at MZA3434.  
     
     
         13 . A corn plant produced by the process of  claim 12 .  
     
     
         14 . A seed of the corn plant of  claim 13   
     
     
         15 . The corn plant of  claim 1 , wherein the corn plant does not comprise the same alleles as MP305 at or above UMC2041 or at or below UMC2200 at the loci shown in Table 16.  
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising electronically transmitting or electronically storing data representing the detected alleles in a computer readable medium.  
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 1 , further comprising detecting in the corn plant the presence or absence of at least one marker within the Rcg1 gene.  
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 17 , further comprising selecting for at least four markers, wherein at least two of said markers are within the chromosomal interval below UMC2285 and above the Rcg1 gene, and at least two of said markers are within the chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC15a.  
     
     
         19 . The process of  claim 17 , wherein the Rcg1 gene is introgressed from a donor corn plant into a recipient corn plant to produce an introgressed corn plant.  
     
     
         20 . The process of  claim 19 , wherein the donor corn plant is MP305 or DE811ASR(BC5).  
     
     
         21 . The process of  claim 19 , wherein the introgressed corn plant is selected for a recombination event below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC15a, so that the introgressed corn plant retains a first MP305 derived chromosomal interval below the Rcg1 gene and above UMC15a, and does not retain a second MP305 derived chromosomal interval at and below UMC15a.  
     
     
         22 . An introgressed corn plant produced by the process of  claim 21 .  
     
     
         23 . A seed of the introgressed corn plant of  claim 22 .  
     
     
         24 . The introgressed corn plant produced by the process of  claim 21 , wherein the introgressed corn plant is an Rcg1 locus conversion of PH705, PH5W4, PH51K or PH87P, or a progeny thereof.  
     
     
         25 . A process of identifying a corn plant that displays enhanced resistance to i Colletotrichum infection, the process comprising detecting in the corn plant the presence or absence of at least one marker at the Rcg1 locus, and selecting the corn plant in which the at least one marker is present.  
     
     
         26 . The process of  claim 25 , wherein the at least one marker is on or within SEQ ID NO: 137.  
     
     
         27 . The process of  claim 26 , wherein the at least one marker is capable of detecting a polymorphism located at a position selected from the group consisting of: 
 (a) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 1 and 536;    (b) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 7230 and 7535;    (c) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 11293 and 12553;    (d) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 25412 and 29086; and    (e) the position in SEQ ID NO: 137 corresponding to nucleotides between 43017 and 50330.    
     
     
         28 . The process of  claim 25 , wherein the at least one marker is on or within the Rcg1 coding sequence.  
     
     
         29 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the Rcg1 coding sequence comprises a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide, wherein the polypeptide has an amino acid sequence of at least 95% identity when compared to SEQ ID NO:3 based on the Needleman-Wunsch alignment algorithm.  
     
     
         30 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the at least one marker is on or within the polynucleotide set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1.  
     
     
         31 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the at least one marker detects a single nucleotide polymorphism at a position in the nucleotide sequence set forth as SEQ ID NO: 1 corresponding to one or more of position 413, 958, 971, 1099, 1154, 1235, 1250, 1308, 1607, 2001, 2598, and 3342.  
     
     
         32 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the at least one marker is an SNP marker selected from the group consisting of C00060-01 and C00060-02.  
     
     
         33 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the at least one marker is an FLP marker on an amplicon generated by a primer pair comprising a first and second primer, wherein the first primer is selected from the group consisting of: 
 (a) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 35 and the complement thereof;    (b) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 37 and the complement thereof;    (c) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 39 and the complement thereof; and    (d) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 41 and the complement thereof;    and wherein the second primer is selected from the group consisting of    (a) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 36 and the complement thereof;    (b) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 38 and the complement thereof;    (c) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 40 and the complement thereof; and    (d) the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 42 and the complement thereof.    
     
     
         34 . The process of  claim 25 , wherein the at least one marker detects an mRNA sequence derived from the Rcg1 mRNA transcript and unique to Rcg1.  
     
     
         35 . The process of  claim 25 , wherein said process further comprises detecting in the corn plant the presence or absence of at least two markers within the Rcg1 locus.  
     
     
         36 . The process of  claim 35 , wherein the at least two markers are C00060-01 and C00060-02.  
     
     
         37 . The process of  claim 36 , wherein the Rcg1 locus is introgressed from a donor corn plant into a recipient corn plant to produce an introgressed corn plant.  
     
     
         38 . The process of  claim 37 , wherein the donor corn plant is MP305 or DE811ASR(BC5).  
     
     
         39 . An introgressed corn plant produced by the process of  claim 38 .  
     
     
         40 . A seed of the introgressed corn plant of  claim 39 .  
     
     
         41 . The introgressed corn plant produced by the process of  claim 38 , wherein the introgressed corn plant is an Rcg1 locus conversion of PH705, PH5W4, PH51K or PH87P, or a progeny thereof.  
     
     
         42 . The process of  claim 25 , further comprising electronically transmitting or electronically storing data representing the presence or absence of the at least one marker in a computer readable medium.