Project Number: 6645-21220-012-09
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 01, 2005
End Date: Jul 31, 2009

Objective:
Examine the effects of altered fatty acid and lipid composition on disease, defense activation and defense signaling in soybean seed.

Approach:
Pathogen susceptibility assessments of developing (pre-harvest) and mature seed (post-harvest) will be conducted by the Upchurch lab in the greenhouse and laboratory, respectively. Two seed pathogens, Cercospora kikuchii (pre harvest seed blight) and Diaporthe paseolorum, (pre/post harvest seed decay), will be used to inoculate the various soybean lines. Pathogen aggressiveness and tissue colonization ability will be estimated by use of ergosterol as a fungal marker. Soybean seed-specific defense genes will be identified and gene-specific PCR primers designed by the Graham lab. RNA-based methods to measure defense gene expression levels in pathogen-induced soybean tissues will be pursued in the Graham lab, including reverse Northern panels and microarray gene chips. Quantification of soybean defense natural product compounds will be carried out in the Graham lab using an HPLC-based principal component analysis protocol developed in that lab. Additional and complementary defense gene expression profiling will be done in the Upchurch lab using real-time PCR methodology.