Publications by authors named "Vanthana Doraiswamy"

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is an important forward and reverse genetics method for the study of gene function in many plant species, especially . However, despite the widespread use of VIGS, a searchable database compiling the phenotypes observed with this method is lacking. Such a database would allow researchers to know the phenotype associated with the silencing of a large number of individual genes without experimentation.

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To identify genes that confer nonhost resistance to biotrophic fungal pathogens, we did a forward-genetics screen using Medicago truncatula Tnt1 retrotransposon insertion lines. From this screen, we identified an inhibitor of rust germ tube differentation1 (irg1) mutant that failed to promote preinfection structure differentiation of two rust pathogens, Phakopsora pachyrhizi and Puccinia emaculata, and one anthracnose pathogen, Colletotrichum trifolii, on the abaxial leaf surface. Cytological and chemical analyses revealed that the inhibition of rust preinfection structures in irg1 mutants is due to complete loss of the abaxial epicuticular wax crystals and reduced surface hydrophobicity.

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