The present invention pertains to the field of imparting or increasing resistance against fungal pathogens, in particular soy-beanrust, in plants, plant parts, and/or plant cells. This is achieved by increasing the content of scopoletin, scopolin and/or, most preferably, scoparone (6,7-di-methoxycoumarin) in a plant, plant part and/or plant cell. This can in particular be achieved by establishing and/or increasing the expression of an OMT3 enzyme and an F6H1 protein in the respective plant, plant part and/or plant cell; a further way would be to apply a formulation or solution containing scopoletin and/or, most preferably, scoparone to the plant, plant part and/or plant cell. The invention correspondingly also provides proteins, enzymes, expression constructs, plants, plant parts and/or plant cells. In this respect the invention also provides variants of the OMT3 enzyme.

Provided herein is a powdery mildew resistant grapevine plants and methods for providing powdery mildew resistance to susceptible grapevine plants. Specifically, provided herein are grapevine plants including in their genome an impaired Erysiphe necator resistance conferring gene, wherein the corresponding not impaired Erysiphe necator resistance conferring gene designated VvMLO13 encodes a protein including the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No. 1, or proteins having 95% sequence identity therewith. The impairment results in an absence of a protein comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No. 1, or proteins having 95% sequence identity therewith, in the grapevine plant and wherein the grapevine plant is resistant to powdery mildew.

The present invention relates to novel melon plants displaying an increased resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. melonis race 1,2 infection. The present invention also relates to seeds and parts of said plants, for example fruits. The present invention further relates to methods of making and using such seeds and plants. The present invention also relates to novel genetic sequences associated with said increased resistance and to molecular markers associated with said novel genetic sequences.

A more efficient breeding against Cercospora leaf spot disease, or the development of new resistant lines, is enabled via the provision of the Cercospora resistance-mediating gene according to the invention; in particular, a dominant resistance effect in the target plant is evoked by the property of the identified gene alone. The Cercospora resistance-mediating gene, and embodiments of the present invention that are described in the preceding, offer additional applications, e.g., the use of the resistant gene allele in cis-genetic or trans-genetic approaches, with the goal of developing new resistant cultivars.

The invention provides a compositions and methods for controlling phenotypic traits in plants. Genes of interest are placed under the control of a gene switch to allow inducible control or expression of a gene of interest “on-demand” by treatment of the plant with a chemical ligand.

The present invention relates to plants, particularly crop plants, having enhanced tolerance to biotic stress, particularly enhanced tolerance to stress caused by a wide range of plant pathogens. The tolerant plants of the invention show enhanced expression of Arabidopsis S30 protein or of homologs or orthologs thereof.

Compositions and methods and for enhancing the resistance of plants to a plant disease caused by a Phytophthora species are provided. The compositions comprise nucleic acid molecules encoding resistance (R) gene products and variants thereof and plants, seeds, and plant cells comprising such nucleic acid molecules. The methods for enhancing the resistance of a plant to a plant disease caused by a Phytophthora species comprise introducing a nucleic acid molecule encoding an R gene product into a plant cell. Additionally provided are methods for using the plants in agriculture to limit plant disease.

The disclosure provides methods of making gene-edited plants that are resistant to downy mildew, such as plants with reduced expression of homoserine kinase (HSK), 2-oxoglutarate-Fe(II) oxygenase (2OGO), or both. The disclosure further provides methods of making gene-edited modified plants that are cold tolerant, such as plants with reduced expression of MYB14. In some examples, CRISPR/Cas methods are used, wherein the plants include a mutated HSK, 2OGO, and/or MYB14 gene resulting in reduced expression and/or gene activity. Plants generated using the methods are provided. Such plants can include other desirable traits. HSK, 2OGO, and/or MYB14 nucleic acid and protein molecules are provided, as are gRNAs specific for HSK, 2OGO, or MYB14 and vectors containing such.

The invention relates to a genetically modified cereal plant having a recombinant DNA construct comprising a gene encoding a polypeptide having aspartyl protease activity (EC 3.4.23.12) whose expression, particularly in grain, confers enhanced fungal disease resistance as compared to a parent cereal plant from which said genetically modified cereal plant was derived. The invention further relates to a method for producing a genetically modified cereal plant of the invention comprising transforming one or more cells of a parent cereal plant with the recombinant DNA construct; as well as a method for manufacturing the genetically modified grain for production of a crop of genetically modified cereal plants which exhibit increased resistance to a fungal disease due to expression of the recombinant DNA construct. Furthermore, use of grain produced by a genetically modified cereal plant of the invention includes the manufacture of a composition, comprising a milled grain composition, an animal fodder, or steam-pelleted animal fodder.

Compositions and methods for generating maize plants that exhibit resistance to northern leaf blight are provided herein. Polynucleotides encoding a polypeptide that confers resistance to northern leaf blight, polynucleotide constructs comprising such, and maize plants comprising the polynucleotide constructs are provided.