The significant advancements in wheat breeding history have often benefited from rye (Secale cereale), once considered a "wild grass," as a key wild relative. With its excellent characteristics such as cold tolerance, drought resistance, and disease resistance, rye provides valuable genetic resources for wheat genetic improvement.
Recently, the research group led by Professor HAN Fangpu at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully cloned the broad-spectrum stripe rust resistance gene Yr83 from the Ukrainian triticale accession Rozovskaya.
A distinctive structural feature of Yr83 is the fusion of Harbinger transposase-derived nuclease domain (HTDND) at the C-terminus of a canonical NLR protein. Functional studies confirmed that this domain is a crucial component for the resistance function of Yr83: its deletion resulted in a complete loss of resistance in transgenic plants.
Analysis of protein domain interactions revealed that the HTDND exhibits weak interactions with various NLR protein domains and also shows strong self-interaction. These findings indicate that it may be involved in maintaining the autoinhibitory state of the protein and driving the assembly of the resistosome. This structure of disease resistance protein has not been reported before, unveiling a novel evolutionary mechanism for resistance proteins.
Figure 1 Functional validation and breeding application of Yr83. (Image by IGDB)
Functional validation demonstrated that Yr83 confers near-immunity resistance against multiple prevalent races of Pst in China without adversely affecting key wheat agronomic traits.
For breeding applications, the research team developed a small fragment translocation line 6R/6A carrying Yr83, achieving coordinated improvement of disease resistance and yield. While maintaining immunity to stripe rust, this line significantly increased the number of spikelets and grains per spike.
This study provides an important genetic resource for wheat stripe rust resistance breeding, reveals a new mechanism by which a transposon domain has been "domesticated" into a functional resistance component, and opens new avenues for the artificial design of disease resistance genes.
This work was published online in Nature Plants on March 6 2026 (DOI: 10.1038/s41477-026-02248-1). This research was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the Major Science and Technology Project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China.
Contact:
Professor HAN Fangpu
Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Email: fphan@genetics.ac.cn
CAS
中文
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Figure 1 Functional validation and breeding application of Yr83. (Image by IGDB)Functional validation demonstrated that Yr83 confers near-immunity resistance against multiple prevalent races of Pst in China without adversely affecting key wheat agronomic traits.For breeding applications, the research team developed a small fragment translocation line 6R/6A carrying Yr83, achieving coordinated improvement of disease resistance and yield. While maintaining immunity to stripe rust, this line significantly increased the number of spikelets and grains per spike.This study provides an important genetic resource for wheat stripe rust resistance breeding, reveals a new mechanism by which a transposon domain has been "domesticated" into a functional resistance component, and opens new avenues for the artificial design of disease resistance genes.This work was published online in Nature Plants on March 6 2026 (DOI: 10.1038/s41477-026-02248-1). This research was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the Major Science and Technology Project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China.Contact:Professor HAN FangpuInstitute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of SciencesEmail: fphan@genetics.ac.cn