Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Climate change increasingly leads to diminishing water supplies, increased frequency of extreme weather events, and unpredictable prevalence of plant disease incidence and severity, all of which have adverse impacts on farming and agricultural sector by decreasing crop production. Plant diseases are readily influenced by the fluctuation of environmental conditions, however, the impact of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature on plant-pathogen interaction is not well understood. My research aims to address this important knowledge gap using the model Brassica napus-Leptosphaeria maculans pathosystem for three primary reasons. My previous work indicated that elevated CO2 concentrations caused varied lesion sizes on cotyledons among different canola varieties and L. maculans strains. Recent studies suggested that BON1(BONZAI1) encoding one of the copines, was a negative regulator of the plant immune response. BON1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) and a homolog of BAP1 (BAP2) have been shown to interact with BON1 in Arabidopsis. Through reanalysis of published transcriptomes from canola-blackleg interactions, we found the expression of eight BON1 and BAP2 gene copies was significantly decreased in incompatible interaction. The detailed mechanisms of BON1/BAP2 to adapt to climate change and their regulators in crops are not well characterized. Whether BON1/BAP2 maintains conserved function in B. napus is also unclear. These are important questions that form the basis of my research program. My long-term goal is to explore more genetic resources for the improvement of plant disease resistance towards climate change, in hopes of understanding plant resilience and protecting crop production. Over next five years, my research program will integrate genetic, genomic and genome-editing approaches to improve plant resilience to climate change through three short-term objectives based on the B. napus-L. maculans pathosystem: 1. Investigate the impact of rising CO2 and temperature on expression of BON1/BAP2 gene families in B. napus and blackleg pathogen compatible and incompatible interactions. 2. Characterize molecular function of BON1/BAP2 in CRISPR/Cas9 genome edited canola lines in response to elevated CO2 and temperature. 3. Perform a genetic screen to explore new regulators of BON1/BAP2 for the improvement of disease resistance in canola towards climate change. The outcomes can be expanded to manage other important canola diseases such as Sclerotinia stem rot, and Verticillium stripe, which have no qualitative resistance in B. napus. From both Canadian and global perspectives, the expected outcomes will also contribute to establishing more cost-effective and environment-friendly disease management approaches, saving $ millions for growers and developing food security in the context of climate change.