中国农业科学院黄三文课题组近日取得一项新成果。经过不懈努力，他们的研究开发出了受马铃薯NLRome启发的抗性工程插件策略。该项研究成果发表在2025年10月29日出版的《自然》上。

在这里，该课题组人员构建了一个全断面NLRome，包含来自31个野生和21个栽培马铃薯基因组的39211个NLR基因，代表了茄属Petota部分，这是一个有块茎的分支。其中包括对7种对晚疫病具有较强抗性的野生物种的基因组进行了新测序。系统基因组学分析揭示了区分传感器NLR和辅助NLR的不对称进化模式。NLRome的挖掘使他们能够克隆出Rpi-cph1和Rpi-cjm1，前者是以前仅在美国黑茄中发现的同源物，后者是一种含有Toll/白细胞介素-1受体（TIR）结构域的抗晚疫病NLR。

该课题组发现非正则NLR集成域在NLRome中广泛存在。追踪它们的进化轨迹使他们能够鉴定出Rpi-brk1，这是一种通过其重金属相关（HMA）结构域感知病原菌效应的R基因。该团队发现，将HMA结构域整合到马铃薯NLR R1中可以拓宽其抗性谱，这表明结构域“插入”策略可以以工程抗病为主题。这些发现为通过比较和进化基因组学发现R基因提供了范例，并为R基因工程提供了策略。

研究人员表示，马铃薯晚疫病是由疫霉（Phytophthora infestans）引发的，是导致爱尔兰马铃薯饥荒的罪魁祸首，它仍然是全球粮食安全的主要威胁。大多数抗晚疫病基因编码核苷酸结合的富亮氨酸重复蛋白（NLRs），但许多基因已被大肠杆菌的快速进化所克服。通过杂交马铃薯育种部署R基因，为管理晚疫病提供了一个有希望的解决方案。

附：英文原文

Title: Plug-in strategy for resistance engineering inspired by potato NLRome

Author: Wang, Luyao, Li, Hongbo, Ke, Yuhang, Zhu, Ping, Li, Yuying, Wang, Pei, Liu, Haohao, Li, Yajie, Chen, Jingqi, Zhou, Shaoqun, Wan, Li, Dinesh-Kumar, Savithramma P., Dong, Suomeng, Huang, Sanwen

Issue&Volume: 2025-10-29

Abstract: Potato late blight, which is caused by Phytophthora infestans and was responsible for the Irish potato famine, remains a major threat to global food security1. Most late-blight resistance (R) genes encode nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat proteins (NLRs), but many have been overcome by the rapid evolution of P. infestans2. Deploying R genes through hybrid potato breeding3,4,5,6,7 offers a promising solution to manage late blight. Here we construct a section-wide NLRome comprising 39,211 NLR genes from 31 wild and 21 cultivated potato genomes, representing Solanum section Petota, the tuber-bearing clade. This includes newly sequenced genomes of seven wild species with strong resistance to late blight. Phylogenomic analyses reveal asymmetric patterns of evolution that distinguish sensor and helper NLRs. Mining of the NLRome enabled us to clone Rpi-cph1, a homologue of which has previously been identified only in American black nightshade, and Rpi-cjm1, a Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain-containing NLR against late blight. We show that non-canonical NLR integrated domains are widespread in the NLRome. Tracing their evolutionary trajectory enabled us to identify Rpi-brk1, an R gene that perceives a P. infestans effector through its heavy-metal-associated (HMA) domain. We find that incorporating the HMA domain into the potato NLR R1 broadens its resistance spectrum, suggesting that a domain ‘plug-in’ strategy could be used to engineer disease resistance. These findings provide a paradigm for R-gene discovery through comparative and evolutionary genomics, and a strategy for R-gene engineering.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09678-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09678-5