Generating maize plants with enhanced resistance to northern leaf blight

Abstract

Compositions and methods for generating maize plants that exhibit resistance to northern leaf blight are provided herein. Isolated polynucleotides encoding a polypeptide that confers resistance to northern leaf blight, polynucleotide constructs comprising such, and maize plants comprising the polynucleotide constructs are provided. The methods include expressing an isolated polynucleotide in a maize cell via standard transformation methods and obtaining a maize plant from said maize cell.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A polynucleotide construct comprising an isolated polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of:
 a. the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1 (PH4GP c-DNA), SEQ ID NO:3 (PH1W2 cDNA), or SEQ ID NO:9 (PH4GP Genomic sequence);   b. a nucleotide sequence encoding a CC-NB-LRR polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 90% sequence identity when compared to SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4, based on the CLUSTAL W method of alignment with default parameters;   c. a nucleotide sequence encoding a CC-NB-LRR polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 90% sequence identity when compared to SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4, based on the CLUSTAL W method of alignment with default parameters, wherein said polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:10; and   d. a nucleotide sequence encoding a CC-NB-LRR polypeptide having the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4,   wherein said isolated polynucleotide is operably linked to a promoter.   
     
     
         2 . The polynucleotide construct of  claim 1 , wherein the polynucleotide construct further comprises one or more additional heterologous nucleic acid sequences that encode a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of: a polypeptide conferring disease resistance, a polypeptide conferring herbicide resistance, a polypeptide conferring insect resistance, a polypeptide involved in carbohydrate metabolism, a polypeptide involved in fatty acid metabolism, a polypeptide involved in amino acid metabolism, a polypeptide involved in plant development, a polypeptide involved in plant growth regulation, a polypeptide involved in yield improvement, a polypeptide involved in drought resistance, a polypeptide involved in cold resistance, a polypeptide involved in heat resistance, and/or a polypeptide involved in salt resistance, wherein each heterologous nucleic acid sequence is operably linked to a promoter. 
     
     
         3 . The polynucleotide construct of  claim 2 , wherein a polypeptide conferring disease resistance is a polypeptide that confers resistance to northern leaf blight (NLB). 
     
     
         4 . The polynucleotide construct of  claim 3 , wherein said polypeptide conferring resistance to northern leaf blight is a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 90% sequence identity when compared to SEQ ID NO:11 or 12, based on the CLUSTAL W method of alignment with default parameters. 
     
     
         5 . A maize plant cell comprising the polynucleotide construct of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         6 . A maize plant comprising the maize plant cell of  claim 5 . 
     
     
         7 . A method for producing a maize plant that exhibits resistance to northern leaf blight (NLB) comprising,
 a) expressing in a regenerable maize plant cell a polynucleotide construct comprising a polynucleotide operably linked to at least one regulatory sequence, wherein the polynucleotide is selected from the group consisting of:
 i. a nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1 (PH4GP c-DNA), SEQ ID NO:3 (PH1W2 cDNA), or SEQ ID NO:9 (PH4GP Genomic sequence); 
 ii. a nucleotide sequence encoding a CC-NB-LRR polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 90% sequence identity when compared to SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4, based on the CLUSTAL W method of alignment with default parameters; 
 iii. a nucleotide sequence encoding a CC-NB-LRR polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 90% sequence identity when compared to SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4, based on the CLUSTAL W method of alignment with default parameters, wherein said polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:10; 
 iv. a nucleotide sequence encoding a CC-NB-LRR polypeptide having the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4; or 
 v. the nucleotide sequence complementary to (i), (ii), (iii) or (iv); and 
   b) generating a maize plant that exhibits resistance to northern leaf blight, wherein said maize plant comprises in its genome the polynucleotide construct.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said at least one regulatory sequence is a promoter. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said at least one regulatory sequence is a terminator. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said regulatory sequence is native to maize. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said regulatory sequence is native to the Ht1 gene. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said polynucleotide construct comprises one or more additional heterologous nucleic acid sequences that encode a polypeptide selected from the group consisting of: a polypeptide conferring disease resistance, a polypeptide conferring herbicide resistance, a polypeptide conferring insect resistance, a polypeptide involved in carbohydrate metabolism, a polypeptide involved in fatty acid metabolism, a polypeptide involved in amino acid metabolism, a polypeptide involved in plant development, a polypeptide involved in plant growth regulation, a polypeptide involved in yield improvement, a polypeptide involved in drought resistance, a polypeptide involved in cold resistance, a polypeptide involved in heat resistance, and/or a polypeptide involved in salt resistance, wherein each heterologous nucleic acid sequence is operably linked to a promoter. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the polypeptide conferring disease resistance is a polypeptide that confers resistance to northern leaf blight (NLB). 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein said polypeptide conferring resistance to northern leaf blight is a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of at least 90% sequence identity when compared to SEQ ID NO:11 or 12, based on the CLUSTAL W method of alignment with default parameters. 
     
     
         15 . A method of obtaining a maize plant that exhibits resistance to northern leaf blight (NLB), said method comprising,
 a) crossing a maize plant generated by the method of  claim 7  with a maize plant that does not comprise in its genome the polynucleotide construct;   b) obtaining a progeny plant that exhibits resistance to northern leaf blight, wherein said progeny plant comprises the polynucleotide construct in its genome.