Evaluation of enhanced disease resistance (EDR) genes for stripe rust resistance in wheat
Ksenia Krasileva, Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
Stripe rust along with stem and leaf rust are the major threat to wheat production worldwide. It is estimated that wheat rust pathogens cause a global annual loss of approximately 15 million tons, with a value of US$ 2.9 billion. Plant breeders are constantly putting in the effort to develop wheat varieties that have more robust rust resistance. However, rust pathogens are also evolving under climate change pressure. Consequently, today’s resistant variety will no longer be resistant in the upcoming years. So, we have to put more effort into understanding the plant-pathogen interactions under different climate conditions. EDR genes are either NLR or non-NLR genes that are crucial in regulating immunity and cellular death through transcription. Further exploring these phenotypes and the genome locations of these genes will help breed wheat resistant to fungi.
Role: The student will help the mentor positionally clone EDR genes and dissect individual phenotypes. The basic techniques include: primer design, PCR, DNA and RNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, etc. After learning the techniques, the student will perform these experiments independently.
Qualifications: The student should be highly motivated, patient with troubleshooting, and willing to work independently but not afraid to ask many questions. The student is expected to dedicate about 9 hours a week to the project, including meetings with the mentor. An undergraduate student is also expected to attend lab meetings weekly and make a 15 min research progress presentation at the lab meeting at the end of the semester. The student should schedule 1:1 meetings with Prof. Krasileva at least monthly and are encouraged to have additional ad hoc meetings in person or by Zoom to discuss career development and the research project.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: China Lunde Shaw, Staff Researcher
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Related website: https://krasilevalab.org/
Biological & Health Sciences