Apoptotic-like PCD inducing HRC gene when silenced enhances multiple disease resistance in plants

Abstract Programed cell death (PCD) plays an important role in plant environmental stress and has the potential to be manipulated to enhance disease resistance. Plants have innate immunity and, following pathogen perception, the host induces a Hypersensitive Response PCD (HR-PCD), leading to pattern (PTI) or effector triggered immunity (ETI). Here we report a non-HR type or apoptotic-like PCD (AL-PCD) in pathogen infected wheat and potato. The pathogen induced Ca2+ in the apoplast is transported to the cytosol where it binds to calmodulin (CAM). The Ca2+-CAM binds to histidine-rich-calcium-binding-protein (HRC) increasing Ca2+ concentration in the cytosol. The HRC moves to the nucleus and increases Ca2+ concentration that triggers endonucleases which induce AL-PCD, but not when HRC is silenced. The absence of AL-PCD reduced food for pathogen which results in reduced biomass and mycotoxin accumulation. The reduced gene function inhibition, promotes expression of the R-gene repertoire of the host, leading to enhanced multiple pathogen resistance. The functional HRC in commercial varieties of different crops can be silenced by CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to enhance resistance to multiple pathogens.