Deep Learning Analysis of Sugar Beet (beta Vulgaris Ssp Vulgaris) Protease Inhibitors Interacting with Identified Trypsins from Its Primary Pathogen, the Sugar Beet Root Maggot Tetanops Myopaeformis

Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris (sugar beet) is one of two plants globally from which sugar is widely produced, accounting for 55% of U.S. sugar $1B (U.S.) and 35% of global raw sugar $4.6B), annually. Its top pathogen, Tetanops myopaeformis, is capable of causing total crop failure, making its study of utmost urgency. A B. vulgaris protease inhibitor, BvSTI (DV501688), one of 22 of its Kunitz trypsin inhibitors (KTIs) that target trypsin (Trp), is expressed during resistance to T. myopaeformis infection. The T. myopaeformis genome made BLASTp searches possible using the Trp protein XP_014094233 from the dipteran Bactrocera oleae, identifying 9 T. myopaeformis Trps then used in Trp docking and cleavage studies. Trp docking analyses using the T. myopaeformis and Trp cleavage studies were done to determine the extent the B. vulgaris resistance architecture could be susceptible to Trp cleavage. KTI protein homologs then were identified in the model agricultural crop Glycine max (soybean) which undergoes infection by the root pathogen Heterodera glycines (soybean cyst nematode) that is used to better understand the B. vulgaris-T. myopaeformis pathosystem. The predicted interactions between G. max KTIs and H. glycines Trps are presented, including GmKTI20, and GmKTI30 that suppress parasitism by > 80%.