USDA Professor
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology
2572 Thomas Hall, CB 7616
Raleigh, NC 27695-7616
Phone: (919) 515-3516
Fax: (919) 856-4816 (Fax)
Mail: peter_balint-kurti
Ph.D., Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Institute, Norwich, UK
I and my research group are interested in understanding the genetic and mechanistic bases of disease resistance in maize. Maize is a model genetic system and many resources are available with which we can address this problem. We hope that findings made will improve the resilience of the maize crop and will be extrapolated to other plant systems
We work in a number of related areas including:
Analysis of quantitative (partial, polygenic) disease resistance
Genetic and biochemical analysis of the maize hypersensitive defense response.
The basal response to microbes in maize and sorghum
Multiple disease resistance in maize.
Analysis of the maize microbiome
More details of our research can be found at Balint-Kurti Lab.
2017
X. Zhang, Valdés-López, O., Arellano, C., Stacey, G., Balint-Kurti, P. (2017). Genetic dissection of the maize (Zea mays L.) MAMP response. Theoretical and Applied Genetics (in Press)
2016
B. Olukolu, Bian, Y., De Vries, B., Tracy, W.F., Wisser, R., Holland, J. B., and Balint-Kurti, P. J. (2016) The genetics of leaf flecking in maize and its relationship to plant defense and disease resistance. Plant Physiology DOI:10.1104/pp.15.01870
Minker K, Biedrzycki M, Kolagunda A, Rhein S, Perina F, Jacobs S, Moore, M,, Jamann, T., Yang, Q., Nelson, R., Balint-Kurti, P., Kambhamettu, C., Wisser R., and Caplan J. (2016) Semiautomated confocal imaging of fungal pathogenesis on plants: Microscopic analysis of macroscopic specimens. Microscopy Research and Technique, DOI: 10.1002/jemt.22709
Olukolu, B., Tracy, W., Wisser, R., De Vries, B., and Balint-Kurti, P. (2016). A genome-wide association study for partial resistance to maize common rust. Phytopathology 106:745-751.
G-F Wang and Balint-Kurti P (2016) Maize Homologs of CCoAOMT and HCT, Two Key Enzymes in Lignin Biosynthesis, Form Complexes with the NLR Rp1 Protein to Modulate the Defense Response. Plant Physiology pp.00224.2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.16.00224
Liu, Z., Cook, J.,Melia-Hancock, S., Guill, K., Bottoms, C., Garcia, A., Ott, O., Nelson, R., Recker, J., Balint-Kurti, P., Larsson, S., Lepak, N., Buckler, E., Trimble, L., Tracy, W., McMullen, M., Flint-Garcia, S. (2016) Expanding maize genetic resources with pre-domestication alleles: maize-teosinte introgression populations. Plant Genome doi:10.3835/plantgenome2015.07.0053.
J. Lennon, M. Krakowsky, M. Goodman, S Flint-Garcia, Peter Balint-Kurti (2016) Identification of alleles conferring resistance to gray leaf spot in maize derived from its wild progenitor species teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis). Crop Science.56:209-218 doi:10.2135/cropsci2014.07.0468
2015
G-F Wang, He, Y., Strauch, R., Olukolu, B., Nielsen, D. , Li, X. and Balint-Kurti, P. (2015) Maize Homologs of Hydroxycinnamoyltransferase , a Key Enzyme in Lignin Biosynthesis, Bind the NLR Rp1 Proteins to Modulate the Defense Response. Plant Physiology.169: 2230-2243. DOI:10.1104/pp.15.00703
P. Balint-Kurti and J. Holland (2015) New insight into a complex plant–fungal pathogen interaction Nature Genetics 47, 101–103doi:10.1038/ng.3203
V. Vontimitta, Olukolu, B., Penning, B., Johal, G., Balint-Kurti, P. (2015) The genetic basis of flecking and its relationship to disease resistance in the IBM maize mapping population. Theoretical and Applied Genetics. 128:2331-9 .DOI: 10.1007/s00122-015-2588-8.
G-F Wang and Balint-Kurti P. (2015) Cytoplasmic and nuclear localizations are important for the hypersensitive response conferred by maize autoactive Rp1-D21 protein. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 28, 1023-1031
G-F Wang, Ji J, EI-Kasmi, F, Dangl, J, Johal G, Balint-Kurti P. (2015) Molecular and Functional Analyses of a Maize Autoactive NB-LRR Protein Identify Precise Structural Requirements for Activity. PLOS Pathogens, DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1004674
R. C. Pratt, J. B. Holland, P. J. Balint-Kurti, N. D. Coles, J. Zwonitzer, M. A. Casey, and M. D. McMullen (2015) Registration of the Ki14 × B73 Recombinant Inbred Mapping Population of Maize. Journal of Plant Registrations. doi:10.3198/jpr2014.06.0041crmp.
2014
Y. Bian, Q. Yang, P. Balint-Kurti, R. Wisser, J. Holland (2014) Limits on the reproducibility of marker associations with southern leaf blight resistance in the maize nested association mapping population. BMC Genomics 2014, 15:1068
B Olukolu, Wang G-F, Vontimitta V, Venkata BP , Marla S, Ji J, Gachomo E, Chu K, Negeri A, Benson J, Nelson R , Bradbury P, Nielsen D, Holland J B, Balint-Kurti PJ and Johal G. (2014) A Genome-Wide Association Study of the Maize Hypersensitive Defense Response Identifies Genes That Cluster in Related Pathways. PLoS Genetics DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004562
Manching, H. Balint-Kurti, P. and Stapleton, A. (2014) Nitrogen stress reduces fungal pathogen symptoms and dampens the correlation between disease and early-season bacterial epiphyte diversity in maize. Frontiers in Plant Science doi: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00403
Santa-Cruz, J. H., Kump, K. L., Arellano, C. , Goodman, M., Krakowsky, M. D., Holland, J. B. , Balint-Kurti, P. J. (2014) Evaluation of two southern leaf blight resistance QTL for their effect on yield and disease resistance in isogenic maize hybrids. Crop Science 54: 882-894
2013
Benavente, L., Ding, X., Redinbaugh, M., Nelson, R., and Balint-Kurti, P. (2013) Virus-Induced Gene Silencing in Diverse Maize Lines Using the Brome Mosaic Virus-based silencing vector. Maydica 57(3/4):206-214
Negeri, A., Wang, G-F., Benavente, L., Kibiti, C., Chaikam, V., Johal, G., Balint-Kurti, P. (2013) Characterization of temperature and light effects on the defense response phenotypes associated with the maize RP1-D21 gene. BMC Plant Biology 13:106
Olukolu, B., Negeri, A., Dhawan, R. , Venkata, B. P. , Sharma, P., Garg, A. , Gachomo, E. , Marla, S., Chu, K., Hasan, A. , Ji, J. , Chintamanani, S., Green, J. , Holland, J., Wisser, R. , Shyu, C.-R., Johal, G., Balint-Kurti, P. (2013) A genome-wide association analysis identifies loci that modulate hypersensitive response caused by a maize auto-active resistance gene. Genetics 193:609-620
2012
Green, J.M, Appel, H., Rehrig, E. M., Harnsomburana, J., Chang, J-F., Balint-Kurti, P., Shyu, C-R., (2012) PhenoPhyte: A flexible affordable method to quantify visual 2D phenotypes. Plant Methods. 8:45. doi:10.1186/1746-4811-8-45
Veturi, Y., Kump, K., Walsh, E., Oliver, O., Poland , J., Kolkman, J., Balint-Kurti, P., Holland, J., Wisser , R., (2012) Multivariate mixed linear model analysis of longitudinal data: an information-rich statistical technique for analyzing disease resistance data. Phytopathology 102, 1016-1025
Belcher, A., Zwonitzer, J., Santa Cruz, J., Krakowsky, M., Chung, C-L. Nelson, R., Arellano, C., Balint-Kurti, P. (2012) Analysis of Quantitative Disease Resistance to Southern Leaf Blight and of Multiple Disease Resistance in Maize Using Near-Isogenic Lines. 124:433-445. Theoretical and Applied Genetics.
2011
Balint-Kurti, P., Pridgen, P. and Stapleton, A.. (2011). Application of an antibiotic resets the maize leaf phyllosphere community and increases resistance to southern leaf blight. Acta Hort. (Ishs) 905:57-62. http://www.actahort.org/books/905/905_4.htm
Chaikam, V. Negeri, A, Dhawan, D., Puchaka, B. , Ji, J., Chintamanani,, S., Gachomo, E., Zillmer, A., Doran, T., Weil, C., Balint-Kurti, P., Johal, G. (2011) Use of Mutant-Assisted Gene Identification and Characterization (MAGIC) to identify novel genetic loci that modify the maize hypersensitive response . Theoretical and Applied Genetics 123(6):985-97.
Negeri, A ., Coles, N., Holland, J., Balint-Kurti, P.. Mapping QTL controlling southern leaf blight resistance by joint analysis of three related recombinant inbred line populations (2011) Crop Science 51:1571-1579
Wisser, R., Kolkman, J., Patzoldt, M., Holland, J., Yu, J., Krakowsky, M., Nelson, R., and Balint-Kurti, P. (2011) : Multivariate analysis of maize disease resistances suggests a pleiotropic genetic basis and implicates a GST gene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108:7339-7344
Kump, K., Bradbury, P., Buckler, E., Belcher, A., Oropeza-Rosas, M., Wisser, R., Zwonitzer, J., Kresovich, S., McMullen, M., Ware, D., Balint-Kurti, P., and Holland, J. (2011) Genome-wide association study of quantitative resistance to southern leaf blight in the maize nested association mapping population. Nature Genetics 43:163-168
Kump, K., Holland, J., Jung, M., Wolters, P., Balint-Kurti, P. (2010) Joint analysis of near isogenic and recombinant inbred line populations yields precise positional estimates for QTL. Plant Genome 3:142–153
Wisser, R., Balint-Kurti, P, Holland, J. (2011) A novel genetic framework for studying response to artificial selection. Plant Genetic Resources. Published Online DOI:10.1017/S1479262111000359
Chung,C-L., Poland, J., Kump, K., Benson, J., Longfellow, J., Walsh, E., Balint-Kurti, P. and Nelson, R. (2011)Targeted discovery of quantitative trait loci for resistance to northern leaf blight and other diseases of maize. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 123:307-326
2010
Zhang, J., Martin, J., Balint-Kurti, P., Huang, L., Giroux, M. (2010). The wheat puroindoline genes confer fungal resistance in transgenic corn. Journal of Phytopathology 159:188-190
Chung C-L, Longfellow, J., Walsh, E., Kerdieh, Z., Van Esbroeck, G., Balint-Kurti, P., Nelson, R. (2010). Resistance loci affecting distinct stages of fungal pathogenesis: use of introgression lines for QTL mapping and characterization in the maize – Setosphaeria turcica pathosystem . BMC Plant Biology 10:103.
Chintamanani, S, Hulbert,S.H.,, Johal, G.S., Balint-Kurti, P. (2010) Identification of a Maize Locus that Modulates the Hypersensitive Defense Response, Using Mutant-Assisted Gene Identification and Characterization (MAGIC). , Genetics 184: 813–825
Balint-Kurti, P., Yang, J., Esbroek, G.V. Jung, J. and Smith, E. (2010) Use of a maize Advanced Intercross Line population for Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci for northern leaf blight resistance and for the investigation of multiple disease resistance. Crop Science 50: 458-466.
Zwonitzer, J., Coles, N., Krakowsky, M., Holland, J., McMullen, M., Pratt, R. and Balint-Kurti, P. (2010) Mapping disease resistance QTL for three foliar diseases of maize in a recombinant inbred line population. -Evidence for Multiple Disease Resistance? Phytopathology 100:72-79.
Coles, N., McMullen, M. , Balint-Kurti, P., Pratt, R.,, and Holland, J. (2010) Genetic Control of Photoperiod Sensitivity in Maize Revealed by Joint Multiple Population Analysis Genetics 184: 799–812
Balint-Kurti, P., Simmons, S., Blum J., Ballaré C. and A. Stapleton.. (2010). Maize Leaf Epiphytic Bacteria Diversity Patterns Are Genetically Correlated with Resistance to Fungal Pathogen Infection. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 23: 473-484
