Genomic and Molecular Perspectives of Host-pathogen Interaction and Resistance Strategies against White Rust in Oilseed Mustard

Oilseed brassicas stand as the second most valuable source of vegetable oil and the third most traded one across the globe. However, the yield can be severely affected by infections caused by phytopathogens. White rust is a major oomycete disease of oilseed brassicas resulting in up to 60% yield loss globally. So far, success in the development of oomycete resistant Brassicas through conventional breeding has been limited. Hence, there is an imperative need to blend conventional and frontier biotechnological means to breed for improved crop protection and yield. This review provides a deep insight into the white rust disease and explains the oomycete-plant molecular events with special reference to Albugo candida describing the role of effector molecules, A. candida secretome, and disease response mechanism along with nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptor (NLR) signaling. Based on these facts, we further discussed the recent progress and future scopes of genomic approaches to transfer white rust resistance in the susceptible varieties of oilseed brassicas, while elucidating the role of resistance and susceptibility genes. Novel genomic technologies have been widely used in crop sustainability by deploying resistance in the host. Enrichment of NLR repertoire, over-expression of R genes, silencing of avirulent and disease susceptibility genes through RNA interference and CRSPR-Cas are technologies which have been successfully applied against pathogen-resistance mechanism. The article provides new insight into Albugo and Brassica genomics which could be useful for producing high yielding and WR resistant oilseed cultivars across the globe.