Peter Balint-Kurti

About

Peter Balint-Kurti is an adjunct professor and USDA-ARS research geneticist whose work focuses on understanding the genetic and mechanistic bases of disease resistance in maize. His research aims to improve the resilience of maize crops by analyzing various aspects of disease resistance, including quantitative (partial, polygenic) resistance, the maize hypersensitive defense response, basal responses to microbes in maize and sorghum, and multiple disease resistance mechanisms. His work involves genetic and biochemical analysis, microbiome studies, and the development of maize populations for gene discovery and resistance characterization. Balint-Kurti's research also extends to the molecular and cellular bases of plant-pathogen interactions, particularly the role of effectors and resistance proteins such as NLRs in maize. He investigates the regulation of immune responses, including the degradation of activated resistance proteins via the ERAD pathway, and explores the broader implications for plant immunity and crop improvement. His contributions include elucidating key defense mechanisms in maize, which is a model species for plant genetics and the top crop in the U.S., with findings relevant to other crop species as well.

Selected publications

• Microbe-dependent heterosis in maize

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 96 citations

  offspring under sterile conditions but that heterosis can be restored by inoculation with a simple community of seven bacterial strains. We observed the same pattern for seedlings inoculated with autoclaved versus live soil slurries in a growth chamber and for plants grown in steamed or fumigated versus untreated soil in the field. In a different field site, however, soil steaming increased rather than decreased heterosis, indicating that the direction of the effect depends on community composit…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The ZmWAKL–ZmWIK–ZmBLK1–ZmRBOH4 module provides quantitative resistance to gray leaf spot in maize

  Nature Genetics · 2024-01-18 · 58 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Gray leaf spot (GLS), caused by the fungal pathogens Cercospora zeae-maydis and Cercospora zeina , is a major foliar disease of maize worldwide ( Zea mays L.). Here we demonstrate that ZmWAKL encoding cell-wall-associated receptor kinase-like protein is the causative gene at the major quantitative disease resistance locus against GLS. The ZmWAKL Y protein, encoded by the resistance allele, can self-associate and interact with a leucine-rich repeat immune-related kinase ZmWIK on the plas…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The ZmCPK39–ZmDi19–ZmPR10 immune module regulates quantitative resistance to multiple foliar diseases in maize

  Nature Genetics · 2024-11-04 · 28 citations

  articleOpen access

  Gray leaf spot, northern leaf blight and southern leaf blight are three of the most destructive foliar diseases affecting maize (Zea mays L.). Here we identified a gene, ZmCPK39, that encodes a calcium-dependent protein kinase and negatively regulates quantitative resistance to these three diseases. The ZmCPK39 allele in the resistant line displayed significantly lower pathogen-induced gene expression than that in the susceptible line. A marked decrease in ZmCPK39 abundance mitigated the phospho…

  PublisherDOI

• Natural variation in the pattern‐triggered immunity response in plants: Investigations, implications and applications

  Molecular Plant Pathology · 2024-03-01 · 24 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) response is triggered at the plant cell surface by the recognition of microbe-derived molecules known as microbe- or pathogen-associated molecular patterns or molecules derived from compromised host cells called damage-associated molecular patterns. Membrane-localized receptor proteins, known as pattern recognition receptors, are responsible for this recognition. Although much of the machinery of PTI is conserved, natural variation for the PTI response exists…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Use of the Puccinia sorghi haustorial transcriptome to identify and characterize AvrRp1-D recognized by the maize Rp1-D resistance protein

  PLoS Pathogens · 2024-11-08 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The common rust disease of maize is caused by the obligate biotrophic fungus Puccinia sorghi. The maize Rp1-D allele imparts resistance against the P. sorghi IN2 isolate by initiating a defense response that includes a rapid localized programmed cell death process, the hypersensitive response (HR). In this study, to identify AvrRp1-D from P. sorghi IN2, we employed the isolation of haustoria, facilitated by a biotin-streptavidin interaction, as a powerful approach. This method proves particularl…

  PublisherDOI

Labs

• Peter Balint-KurtiPI

Awards & honors

• NSF CAREER Award (2022)
• USDA - National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Gra…
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant (2022-2026)

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