SEMINAR: Plant Biology Research Seminar

In order to meet the increasing demands on agriculture by a growing global population, a comprehensive understanding of the limiting and destructive factors in our current agricultural practices, is necessary. One of these key areas of knowledge is the intrinsic relationship between plant and pathogen. The devastating effects of some of our most virulent pathogens can virtually wipe out an annual crop in many regions. Leptosphaeria maculans, the causal agent of Blackleg disease in Brassica napus is responsible for an average of 15% p.a. crop losses worldwide, at a cost to the industry of US$900M. Resistance to disease can be either quantitative or qualitative, where seedling derived qualitative resistance is conferred by the recognition of an effector molecule by the product/s of a resistance gene. Qualitative resistance typically results in complete resistance against this pathogen.

The identification of genes underlying important quantitative trait loci is extremely challenging in complex genomes such as Brassica napus (canola, oilseed rape or rapeseed). However, recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) enable much quicker identification of candidate genes for traits of interest. In coordination with an array of genomics analysis tools, the elucidation and downsteam validation of candidate genes can be accomplished in a more efficient and timely manner. Molecular analyses of candidate resistance genes using B. napus NGS data are presented, and the difficulties associated with identifying functional gene copies within the highly duplicated Brassica genome are discussed.