Soybean Health: Rust Gene Discovery Initiative

The overall goal of this proposed research is to protect and enhance the overall health of soybean crops by pursuing new approaches to identify genes associated with resistance to soybean rust. This project will be led by Dr. Schuyler Korban at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The research will pursue the discovery of candidate genes using RNAi gene knockout technology. The determination of whether or not these candidate genes are indeed involved in rust resistance by gauging their function in whole soybean plants will be aided by the work of Dr. S.A. Ghabrial at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Ghabrial will conduct a high throughput screening protocol to assess the functionality of candidate genes using a virus-induced gene expression system (VIGS) in order to narrow down the list of candidate genes before they are evaluated for their role in rust resistance in whole soybean plants.