Protection of the durability of major resistance genes to plant viruses through quantitative resistance, a modeling approach

Description

The deployment of virus-resistant crops often leads to the emergence of resistance-breaking (RB) pathogens that suppress the yield benefit provided by the resistance [1]. Although break- downs are well known for plant genes conferring total, i.e. qualitative resistance to the virus, they are still poorly understood for plant genetic factors conferring partial, i.e. quantitative resistance. Furthermore, it has been proved for several pathosystems that combining qualita- tive and quantitative resistances can increase the durability of the qualitative resistance [2, 3]. Two mechanisms can explain this result : either (i) an increase of genetic drift in the virus population, or (ii) a decrease of the selection advantage of the RB mutant. Here, we aim at disentangling the role of these two mechanisms on the durability of plant qualitative resistances to viruses.

Abstract

International audience

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