Xiaodong Wang

Hebei Agricultural University | AUH · College of Plant Protection

Lignin is a crucial component of the cell wall, providing mechanical support and protection against biotic and abiotic stresses. However, little is known about wheat lignin-related mutants and their roles in pathogen defense. In this study, we identified an ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-derived Aegilops tauschii mutant named brown glume and internod...

Thaumatin‐like proteins (TLPs) in plants play a crucial role in combating stress, and they have been proven to possess antifungal properties. However, the role of TLPs in pathogens has not been reported. We identified a effector protein, Pt9029, which contained a Thaumatin domain in Puccinia triticina (Pt), possessing a chloroplast transit peptide...

Bipolaris sorokiniana is a common soil-borne fungal pathogen that can infect various organs of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), causing diseases such as spot blotch, common root rot, head blight, and black point. The genetic basis of wheat resistance to B. sorokiniana is not yet fully understood. In this study, a natural population of 1,302 global com...

Fusarium crown rot (FCR), primarily caused by Fusarium pseudograminearum, has emerged as a new threat to wheat production and quality in North China. Genetic enhancement of wheat resistance to FCR remains the most effective approach for disease control. In this study, we phenotyped 435 Chinese wheat cultivars through FCR inoculation at the seed-lin...

Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is an inducible disease resistance phenomenon in plant species, providing plants with broad-spectrum resistance to secondary pathogen infections beyond the initial infection site. In Arabidopsis, SAR can be triggered by direct pathogen infection or treatment with the phytohormone salicylic acid (SA), as well as it...

Key message The creeping bentgrass small heat shock protein AsHSP26.2 positively regulates plant growth and is a novel candidate for use in crop genetic engineering for enhanced biomass production and grain yield. Abstract Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs), a family of proteins with high level of diversity, significantly influence plant stress tol...

Leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina Eriksson (Pt), is one of the most severe foliar diseases of wheat. Breeding for leaf rust resistance is a practical and sustainable method to control this devastating disease. Here, we report the identification of Lr47, a broadly effective leaf rust resistance gene introgressed into wheat from Aegilops spelto...

Wheat leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina f. sp. tritici (Pt), is distributed widely in wheat-producing areas and results in serious wheat yield losses worldwide. In China, leaf rust has been largely controlled with the demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicide, triadimefon. Although high levels of fungicide resistance in pathogens have been repo...

Leaf rust, caused by the fungal pathogen Puccinia triticina (Pt), is one of the major and dangerous diseases of wheat and has caused serious yield loss of wheat worldwide. Here, we investigated leaf rust adult-plant resistance (APR) in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from Xinmai 26 and Zhoumai 22 over three years. Linkage mapping...

Due to the global warming and dynamic changes in pathogenic virulence, leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina has greatly expanded its epidermic region and become a severe threat to global wheat production. Genetic bases of wheat resistance to leaf rust mainly rely on the leaf rust re-sistance (Lr) gene or quantitative trait locus (QLr). Although t...

Chromosome evolution drives species evolution, speciation, and adaptive radiation. Accurate genome assembly is crucial to understanding chromosome evolution of species, such as dikaryotic fungi. Rust fungi (Pucciniales) in dikaryons represent the largest group of plant pathogens, but the evolutionary process of adaptive radiation in Pucciniales rem...

This Special Issue aims to present an overview of genetics and mechanism for crop improvement. Recent advances in genomics and other high-throughput “omics” techniques associated with this subject may provide fundamental resources for further revealing the genetic bases and molecular mechanism of crop improvement. Identification of novel genetic lo...

Wheat leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina, is a severe fungal disease threatening global wheat production. Rational application of genetic loci controlling wheat resistance to leaf rust in breeding practice is still the best choice for the disease control. Previous study indicated that an Argentinean wheat cultivar “Klein Proteo” might carry le...

During last decade, species belonging to Fusarium, Rosellinia, Armillaria and Dactylonectria were confirmed as phytopathogens causing grapevine root diseases (Highet and Nair 1995; Teixeira et al. 1995; Calamit et al. 2021; Ye et al. 2021). From 2020 to 2021, grapevine decline was observed in several vineyards in Beijing region, China. Leaves turne...

Crop diseases reduce the yield and quality of agricultural products, seriously threatening human, animal and ecological heath (DEAN et al., 2012). Rice (Oryza sativa), as the staple that feeds more than half of the world's population, is often afflicted with multiple devastating diseases, including rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, false smu...

Crop disease poses a significant threat to global food security as the world population continues to expand dramatically. Crops have evolved sophisticated strategies to ward off various invading phytopathogens. Accordingly, phytopathogens have evolved intricate virulent mechanisms to facilitate their infection processes. Steady progress has been ac...

Plant diseases cause substantial annual yield losses of crops ,and pose a major threat to global food security and agricultural sustainability. Improving crop resistance against diverse diseases plays a crucial role in safeguarding sustainable crop production to nourish the increasing world population. Dichperhing the molecular mechanisms underlyin...

Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a broad-spectrum plant defense phenomena controlled by the salicylic acid receptor NPR1. Key regulators of the SAR signaling pathway showed great potentials to improve crop resistance to various diseases. In our previous investigation, a barley transcription factor gene HvWRKY6 was identified as downstream of N...

Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) is one of the most popular fruits grown in Northern China. In July 2021, a fruit rot outbreak on the peach cultivar “Yonglian Sweet” occurred after unusual rains in Baoding, Hebei Province, China. Sixty peach trees from three orchards were assessed, and a 30% disease incidence was estimated. The disease initiated...

Water deficit and rehydration frequently occur during wheat cultivation. Previous investigations focused on the water deficit and many drought-responsive genes have been identified in winter wheat. However, the hormone-related metabolic responses and de-peroxidative activities associated with rehydration are largely unknown. In this study, leaves o...

Plant apoplast serves as the frontier battlefield of plant defense in response to different types of pathogens. Many pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are accumulated in apoplastic space during the onset of plant–pathogen interaction, where they act to suppress pathogen infection. In this study, we found the expression of Triticum aestivum lipid t...

Wheat stem (or black) rust is one of the most devastating fungal diseases, threatening global wheat production. Identification, mapping, and deployment of effective resistance genes are critical to addressing this challenge. In this study, we mapped and characterized one stem rust resistance (Sr) gene from the tetraploid durum wheat variety Kronos...

F-box proteins play critical roles in plant responses to biotic/abiotic stresses. In the present study, a total of 68 wheat F-box/Kelch (TaFBK) genes, unevenly distributed across 21 chromosomes and encoding 74 proteins, were identified in EnsemblPlants. Protein sequences were compared with those of Arabidopsis and three cereal species by phylogenet...

Due to soil changes, high density planting, and the use of straw-returning methods, wheat common root rot (spot blotch), Fusarium crown rot (FCR), and sharp eyespot (sheath blight) have become severe threats to global wheat production. Only a few wheat genotypes show moderate resistance to these root and crown rot fungal diseases, and the genetic d...

Crop diseases are a major threat to global food security as the world population continues to expand dramatically. Crops have evolved sophisticated strategies to cope with various phytopathogens. Accordingly, invading phytopathogens have also evolved intricate virulence mechanisms to facilitate their invasions and propagation. Effectors introduced...

F-box proteins constitute one of the largest protein families and play many important roles in plant. To date, less is known about functions of wheat F-box protein. A Kelch-type F-box gene TaFBK was isolated from wheat TcLr15. TaFBK transcripts were more abundant in pistil and leaf tissues, and accumulated more in the susceptible combination than t...

NPR1 is a key regulator of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in plant species. In our previous study, we identified a conserved fungal effector PNPi from Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) that can suppress acquired resistance in local leaf by directly targeting the wheat NPR1 protein. In this investigation, we identified and validated a no...

As one of the largest protein families in plants, F-box proteins are involved in many important cellular processes. Until now, a limited number of investigations have been conducted on wheat F-box genes due to its variable structure and large and polyploid genome. Classification, identification, structural analysis, evolutionary relationship, and c...

Rust fungi secrete various specialized effectors into host cells to manipulate the plant defense response. Conserved motifs, including RXLR, LFLAK-HVLVxxP (CRN), Y/F/WxC, CFEM, LysM, EAR, [SG]-P-C-[KR]-P, DPBB_1 (PNPi), and ToxA, have been identified in various oomycete and fungal effectors and are reported to be crucial for effector translocation...

In Arabidopsis, both pathogen invasion and benzothiadiazole (BTH) treatment activate the nonexpresser of pathogenesis-related genes 1 (NPR1)-mediated systemic acquired resistance, which provides broad-spectrum disease resistance to secondary pathogen infection. However, the BTH-induced resistance in Triticeae crops of wheat and barley seems to be a...

Puccinia triticina (Pt), the causal agent of wheat leaf rust, is one of the most destructive fungal pathogens threatening global wheat cultivations. The rational utilization of leaf rust resistance (Lr) genes is still the most efficient method for the control of such diseases. The Lr47 gene introgressed from chromosome 7S of Aegilops speltoides sti...

Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in Arabidopsis is established beyond the initial pathogenic infection or is directly induced by treatment with salicylic acid or its functional analogs (SA/INA/BTH). NPR1 protein and WRKY transcription factors are considered the master regulators of SAR. Our previous study showed that NPR1 homologs in wheat (Triti...

Wheat leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina (Pt) is one of the most severe fungal diseases threatening the global wheat production. The use of leaf rust resistance (Lr) genes in wheat breeding programs is the major solution to solve this issue. Wheat isogenic line carrying the Lr39/41 gene has shown a moderate to high resistance to most of the Pt...

Common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the major crop cultivated in Xinjiang and Anhui provinces of China. The climate in these two provinces is favourable for wheat leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) (Pt) infection. Here, we demonstrate a detailed investigation on the leaf rust resistance of 60 major wheat cultivars cultivated in these two regions. A...

In Arabidopsis, systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is established beyond the initial infection by a pathogen or is directly induced by treatment with salicylic acid (SA) or its functional analogs, 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid (INA) and benzothiadiazole (BTH). NPR1 protein is considered the master regulator of SAR in both SA signal sensing and tran...

Wheat leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina (Pt) is one of most severe fungal diseases threatening global wheat production. Rational utilization of the diversified leaf rust resistance (Lr) in different wheat cultivars is still the most efficient method to control this disease. Here in this study, 35 wheat cultivars collected from China main wheat...

Rusts are severe fungal diseases threatening the global wheat production. Our current knowledge on systemic acquired resistance (SAR) and pathogenesis-related (PR) protein in cereal crops of wheat and barley may provide valuable clues for improving their resistance in novel ways. These photos show the possible model of SAR-like responses in wheat a...

Wheat leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina (Pt), is one of the most severe fungal diseases on wheat globally. Rational utilization of wheat leaf rust resistance (Lr) genes is still the best choice for control this disease. Wheat seedlings carrying Lr19 showed a high resistance phenotype to all Pt races in China. So far, all the cloned seedling L...

Significance Pasta and bread wheat are polyploid species that carry multiple copies of each gene. Therefore, loss-of-function mutations in one gene copy are frequently masked by functional copies on other genomes. We sequenced the protein coding regions of 2,735 mutant lines and developed a public database including more than 10 million mutations....

In Arabidopsis, NPR1 is a key transcriptional co-regulator of systemic acquired resistance. Upon pathogen challenge, NPR1 translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where it interacts with TGA-bZIP transcription factors to activate the expression of several Pathogenesis-Related (PR) genes. In a screen of a yeast two-hybrid library from wheat l...

Chinese wheat cultivar “Lantian 9” showed a stable high yield in the field. Together with its other desirable traits such as tolerance to cold, drought, leaf rust and stripe rust, made it a good source for wheat breading. In our preliminary test, “Lantian 9” showed a typical adult resistance phenotype (susceptible at seedling stage but high resista...

The wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) line 19HRWSN-129 from CIMMYT showed resistance to the major Puccinia triticina (Pt) races collected in China. A 144 F-2:3 population was generated by crossing the resistant line 19HRWSN-129 with the susceptible line Zhengzhou5389. All the F-2:3 plants were phenotyped by inoculating with the Pt race PHGN in the green...

Stripe rust is a devastating fungal disease of wheat caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp tritici (Pst). The WHEAT KINASE START1 (WKS1) resistance gene has an unusual combination of serine/threonine kinase and START lipid binding domains and confers partial resistance to Pst. Here, we show that wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants transformed with the...

Subcellular localisation of SNAREs (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors) and their ability to form SNARE complexes are critical for determining the specificity of vesicle fusion. NPSN11, a Novel Plant SNARE (NPSN) gene, has been reported to be involved in the delivery of cell wall precursors to the newly formed ce...

Genetic characterization of the Arabidopsis lesion simulating disease 1 (lsd1) mutant, a lesion mimic mutant (LMM), has revealed the essential role of AtLSD1 in the negative regulation of cell death and disease resistance. The three zinc-finger motifs found in AtLSD1 revealed a novel plant-specific gene family, whose members are significantly relat...

Pheophorbide a oxygenase (PaO) is a key enzyme in chlorophyll catabolism that is known to suppress cell death in maize and Arabidopsis. The catalytic activity of PaO in chlorophyll degradation has been clearly demonstrated, but the function of PaO in the regulation of cell death and plant–microbe interactions is largely unknown. In this study, we c...

The rice (Oryza sativa) OsXA21 receptor kinase is a well-studied immune receptor that initiates a signal transduction pathway leading to resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Two homologs of OsXA21 were identified in wheat (Triticum aestivum): TaXA21-like1 located in a syntenic region with OsXA21, and TaXA21-like2 located in a nonsyntenic re...

Plants live in a complex environment, exposed to stresses, such as unsuitable climates, pests and pathogenic microorganisms. Pathogens are one of the most serious factors that threaten plant growth. Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is one of the most destructive diseases worldwide. Virus-induced gene silencing...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants are induced in various cellular compartments upon pathogen infection and act as an early signal during plant-pathogen interactions. Monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) is involved in plant disease resistance through the regulation of the ROS level via the ascorbate-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle. In this stud...

Effects of benzothidiazole (BTH), an inducer of resistance, were examined in a compatible interaction of soybean seedlings and Phytophthora sojae using electron microscopy and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) techniques. Seedlings were sprayed with BTH 2 days before inoculation of hypocotyls with zoospore suspension of P....

Small GTP-binding proteins function as regulators of specific intercellular fundamental biological processes. In this study, a small GTP-binding protein Rab7 gene, designated as TaRab7, was identified and characterized from a cDNA library of wheat leaves infected with Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) the wheat stripe rust pathogen. The gen...

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a physiological process to remove redundant or harmful cells, for the development of multicellular organisms, or for restricting the spread of pathogens (hypersensitive response). Metacaspases are cysteine-dependent proteases which play an essential role in PCD. Triticum aestivum metacaspase 4 (TaMCA4) is a type II me...