Pathogen resistance in crop plants

A wheat plant having pathogen resistance, wherein pathogen resistance is conferred or increased by downregulation of a nucleotide sequence encoding an endogenous C-terminal domain phosphatase-like 3 (CPL3) protein or a regulatory sequence thereof, or by modulation of the transcription of an endogenous CPL3 protein, wherein modulation is achieved by

• (i) one or more mutation(s) of the nucleotide sequence encoding a CPL3 protein, wherein the one or more mutation(s) has/have a dominant negative effect, preferably wherein the one or more mutation(s) cause(s) an alteration of the amino acid sequence of the conserved catalytic domain of the CPL3 protein comprising the DXDXT/V motif;
• and/or
• (ii) one or more silencing construct(s) directed to one or more endogenous nucleotide sequence(s) encoding a CPL3 protein, preferably directed to all endogenous nucleotide sequences encoding a CPL3 protein;
• and/or
• (iii) a modification of the native regulatory sequence(s) of one or more nucleotide sequence(s) encoding an endogenous CPL3 protein, preferably of all native regulatory sequence(s) of the nucleotide sequences encoding an endogenous CPL3 protein, wherein the modification causes a reduced expression rate of the one or more nucleotide sequence(s) encoding an endogenous CPL3 protein,
• wherein the nucleotide sequence encoding the CPL3 protein is selected from the group consisting of:
• (a) a nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 5 or a homologous, orthologous or paralogous sequence thereof;
• (b) a nucleotide sequence having at least 80% identity to the one of nucleotide sequences as defined in (a);
• (c) a nucleotide sequence encoding for the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 15 or for an amino acid sequence which have at least 80% identity to the one sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 15;
• (d) a nucleotide sequence encoding for an amino acid sequence having at least 80% identity to one of the sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 15, or
• (d) a nucleotide sequence hybridizing with a nucleotide sequence complementary to the sequence as defined in (a)-(d) under stringent conditions.

A nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding for a C-terminal domain phosphatase-like 3 (CPL3) protein, wherein the nucleotide sequence is selected from the group consisting of:

• (a) a nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 5;
• (b) a nucleotide sequence having at least 80% identity to the nucleotide sequences as defined in (a),
• (c) a nucleotide sequence encoding for an amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 15;
• or
• (d) a nucleotide sequence hybridizing with a nucleotide sequence complementary to the sequence as defined in (a)-(c) under stringent conditions,
• wherein the nucleotide sequence comprises at least one mutation capable of conferring or increasing resistance to a pathogen in plant in which the nucleic acid molecule is expressed, preferably wherein the pathogen is at least one of a fungal pathogen, an oomycete pathogen, a bacterial pathogen, a virus, a nematode pathogen, or an insect, preferably wherein the pathogen is a hemibiotrophic fungus selected from the group consisting of:
• Zymoseptoria tritici, Setosphaeria turcica, or wherein the pathogen is a fungus selected from Cercospora spp., preferably Cercospora beticola or Cercospora zeae-mayidis.

A method of generating a wheat plant having pathogen resistance or a cell, tissue, organ, seed, or material thereof, comprising the steps of:

• (i) subjecting the cell, tissue, organ, plant, or material, preferably seeds of a wheat plant, to an efficient amount of a mutagenic agent, preferably ethylmethane sulfonate, N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea, or radiation,
• (ii) obtaining a mutagenized population of cells, tissues, organs, plants, or materials, optionally by growing wheat plants from the mutagenized population;
• (iii) screening the mutagenized population for pathogen resistance, optionally by isolating and analyzing genomic DNA from the plants having pathogen resistance;
• (iv) identifying and obtaining a modified cell, tissue, organ, plant, or material having pathogen resistance.