Dirigent gene EG261 and its orthologs and paralogs and their uses for pathogen resistance in plants

1. A transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture comprising a construct comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding an EG261 polypeptide having at least 97% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 12;

wherein said transgenic soybean plant, or a transgenic soybean plant produced from said transgenic plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture expresses said EG261 polypeptide, and has enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes (SCN) compared to untransformed control soybean plants, and

wherein the construct further comprises an EG261 native promoter operably linked to said nucleic acid encoding the EG261 polypeptide.

2. The transgenic plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 1 , wherein the EG261 native promoter comprises a core promoter selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 69 and 70.

3. The transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 1 , wherein the construct further comprises a gene termination sequence.

4. The transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 3 , wherein the gene termination sequence is a nopaline synthase (NOS) terminator.

5. The transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 2 , wherein the construct further comprises a gene termination sequence.

6. The transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 5 , wherein the gene termination sequence is a nopaline synthase (NOS) terminator.

7. A method for producing a transgenic soybean plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematode, said method comprising:

(i) transforming a soybean plant cell with a construct comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding an EG261 polypeptide having at least 97% identity to SEQ ID NO: 12; and

(ii) cultivating the transgenic soybean cell under conditions conducive to regeneration and mature plant growth;

wherein the transgenic soybean plant regenerated from said transgenic plant cell expresses said EG261 polypeptide, and has enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes compared to untransformed control soybean plants, and

wherein the construct further comprises a EG261 native promoter operably linked to said nucleic acid encoding the EG261 polypeptide.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the EG261 native promoter comprises a core promoter selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 69 and 70.

9. A method of producing hybrid soybean seed, said method comprising crossing the transgenic soybean plant of claim 1 with another soybean plant, and harvesting the resultant seed.

10. Progeny plants of the soybean plant produced by the method of claim 9 , wherein the progeny soybean plants have enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes compared to untransformed control soybean plants as a result of inheriting the nucleic acid.

11. A method of breeding soybean plants to produce plants with enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes, said method comprising: (i) making a cross between a first transgenic soybean plant of claim 1 with a second plant to produce an F1 plant; (ii) backcrossing the F1 plant to the second plant; and (iii) repeating the backcrossing step one or more times to generate a near isogenic or isogenic line, wherein the construct of claim 1 is integrated into the genome of the second plant and the near isogenic or isogenic line derived from the second plant with the nucleic acid sequence encoding the EG261 polypeptide has enhanced pathogen tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes compared to that of the second plant without said nucleic acid sequence.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the soybean plant is Glycine max.

13. The transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 12.

14. The transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 99% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 12.

15. The transgenic soybean plant, plant part, plant cell, or plant tissue culture of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 100% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 12.

16. The method for producing a transgenic soybean plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes of claim 7 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 12.

17. The method for producing a transgenic soybean plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes of claim 7 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 99% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 12.

18. The method for producing a transgenic soybean plant having enhanced tolerance and/or resistance to soybean cyst nematodes of claim 7 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence encodes an EG261 polypeptide having at least 100% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 12.