United Kingdom: Researchers unlock oats’ resistance to damaging weed

Take-all is a root-rot fungal pathogen deadly to cereal crops and grasses. It can cause huge yield losses to wheat and other cereal crops — except oats. Oat protection comes from avenacins, which are antimicrobial compounds found in the plants’ roots and they offer protection against soil-borne diseases like take-all. In contrast, wheat and other cereals do not make these compounds, leaving them vulnerable to infection. Earlier experiments had defined and cloned 10 avenacin biosynthetic pathway genes found in the plant. Now, scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, U.K., have traced the final two steps that give oats their unique resistance to take-all. The knowledge will help to create disease-resistant lines of wheat. The research was conducted by the Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science (CEPAMS), and was a collaboration between the John Innes Centre and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “The paper that we have just published shows the reconstitution of the ...