RPS Gene Family, Primers, Probes, and Detection Methods

Technology Description:

The invention relates to oligonucleotides based on conserved RPS motif 4. Plants are hosts to thousands of infectious diseases caused by a vast array of phytopathogenic viruses, bacteria, and fungi. These pathogens are responsible for significant losses of crop yields and crop quality worldwide. The RPS disease-resistance gene family is a family of plant genes characterized by their ability to trigger a plant's defensive response to combat plant pathogens. Representative members of the RPS gene family include the RPS2 gene of Arabidopsis, the L6 gene of flax, the Prf gene of tomato, and the N gene of tobacco. The invention encompasses the discovery that the RPS disease-resistance gene family has conserved regions of amino acids (motifs). Based on this discovery, the isolation of virtually any member of the RPS gene family is made possible, for example, by the design of RPS oligonucleotides for use as probes or primers.

Reference:

Please refer to Patent Number 6,262,248, which issued July 17, 2001.  This is a division of Patent Number 5,981,730, which issued November 9, 1999.

Inventors:

Barbara J. Baker Plant Gene Expression Center Albany, CA 94710 (510) 559-5900 / Fax: (510) 559-5678	Frederick M. Ausubel Harvard-Massachusetts General Hospital
Jeffrey Ellis CSIRO, Australia	Brian J. Staskawicz UC-Berkeley