"Finding this protein, called DIR1, could help make it possible to genetically engineer crops that resist disease-causing organisms," says Robin Cameron, a professor of botany at U of T and the senior investigator of the study, which appears in the Sept. 26 issue of Nature. "In the long run, having a better understanding of the whole process of disease resistance in plants could eliminate the need for fungicides or bacteriocides."
When disease strikes a plant, its immune system sends up a warning "flare" telling different areas of the plant to resist infection. "This process is kind of like vaccination, only better," Cameron says. Once the signal-dependant on DIR1-is triggered by one disease, it gives the plant systemic acquired resistance (SAR) to many other diseases. The exact role of DIR1 in the signal process is not yet clear, she says.
Cameron, along with colleagues at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., the John Innes Centre in Norwich, U.K. and the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla., studied a mutant strain of weed with abnormal DIR1 that does not develop SAR when exposed to a certain bacterial disease. "Our studies indicate that the normal protein, DIR1, is required to either make or move the warning signal around the plant," she says.
The study was funded by the Noble Foundation, Agritope, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the U.K. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
The University of Toronto, Canada's leading research university with 60,000 students, is celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2002. On March 15, 1827, King's College -- precursor to the University of Toronto -- was granted its royal charter by King George IV. The university now comprises 31 divisions, colleges and faculties on three campuses, including 14 professional faculties, numerous research centres and Canada's largest university library system - the fifth largest research library in North America.
ADDITIONAL CONTACT INFORMATION:
Robin Cameron
Department of Botany
416-978-3545
cameron@botany.utoronto.ca
Journal
Nature