A Novel Wall-Associated Kinase TaWAK-5D600 Positively Participates in Defense against Sharp Eyespot and Fusarium Crown Rot in Wheat.

Sharp eyespot and crown rot, mainly caused by soil-borne fungi and , are destructive diseases of major cereal crops including wheat (). However, the mechanisms underlying wheat-resistant responses to the two pathogens are largely elusive. In this study, we performed a genome-wide analysis of wall-associated kinase (WAK) family in wheat. As a result, a total of 140 (not ) candidate genes were identified from the wheat genome, each of which contains an N-terminal signal peptide, a galacturonan binding domain, an EGF-like domain, a calcium binding EGF domain (EGF-Ca), a transmembrane domain, and an intracellular Serine/Threonine protein kinase domain. By analyzing the RNA-sequencing data of wheat inoculated with and , we found that transcript abundance of () on chromosome 5D was significantly upregulated, and that its upregulated transcript levels in response to both pathogens were higher compared with other genes. Importantly, knock-down of transcript impaired wheat resistance against the fungal pathogens and , and significantly repressed expression of defense-related genes in wheat, , , , , and . Thus, this study proposes as a promising gene for improving wheat broad resistance to sharp eyespot and crown rot (FCR) in wheat.