Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris) is one of two plants from which sugar is broadly produced, accounting for 55% of U. S. sugar (1B, U. S. ) and 35% global raw sugar (4. 6B), annually. The sugar beet root maggot (Tetanops myopaeformis) is its top pathogen in the U. S. , and capable of causing total crop failure, making its study of urgent need. A B. vulgaris protease inhibitor, Bv STI (DV501688), one of 22 of its Kunitz trypsin inhibitors (KTIs) was shown through deep learning analyses to bind 9 different T. myopaeformis trypsins (Trps). As a surrogate crop experimental system to understand resistance in the B. vulgaris-T. myopaeformis pathosystem, transgenic analysis identified homologous Glycine max (soybean) KTIs expressed in root cells undergoing resistance to its most important pathogen, Heterodera glycines and suppresses parasitism by greater than 80%. The study adds to a list of 114 soybean genes identified in laser microdissection-assisted analyses whose expression suppresses H. glycines parasitism. Deep learning analyses demonstrate the predicted interaction between 2 different H. glycines Trps and each of the 114 defense proteins. Predicted interactions include proteins functioning in the circadian clock, pathogen activated molecular pattern (PAMP) -triggered immunity (PTI), nodulation, salicylic acid-mediated defense processes, cell wall metabolism, and vesicle transport including an alpha soluble NSF attachment protein homolog found at the Rhg1 locus. BLASTp analyses of the B. vulgaris proteome with all 114 G. max defense proteins identified the sugar beet homologs as a pool of potential candidate genes to be employed to generate durable resistance to T. myopaeformis.
Rahim et al. (Wed,) studied this question.