A CCCH-Type Zinc Finger Nucleic Acid-Binding Protein Quantitatively Confers Resistance against Rice Bacterial Blight Disease

Abstract

Bacterial blight is a devastating disease of rice (Oryza sativa) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae (Xoo). Zinc finger proteins harboring the motif with three conserved cysteine residues and one histidine residue (CCCH) belong to a large family. Although at least 67 CCCH-type zinc finger protein genes have been identified in the rice genome, their functions are poorly understood. Here, we report that one of the rice CCCH-type zinc finger proteins, C3H12, containing five typical CX 8 -CX 5 -CX 3 -H zinc finger motifs, is involved in the rice-Xoo interaction. Activation of C3H12 partially enhanced resistance to Xoo, accompanied by the accumulation of jasmonic acid (JA) and induced expression of JA signaling genes in rice. In contrast, knockout or suppression of C3H12 resulted in partially increased susceptibility to Xoo, accompanied by decreased levels of JA and expression of JA signaling genes in rice. C3H12 colocalized with a minor disease resistance quantitative trait locus to Xoo, and the enhanced resistance of randomly chosen plants in the quantitative trait locus mapping population correlated with an increased expression level of C3H12. The C3H12 protein localized in the nucleus and possessed nucleic acid-binding activity in vitro. These results suggest that C3H12, as a nucleic acid-binding protein, positively and quantitatively regulates rice resistance to Xoo and that its function is likely associated with the JA-dependent pathway.

The WRKY45-2 WRKY13 WRKY42 Transcriptional Regulatory Cascade Is Required for Rice Resistance to Fungal Pathogen

“…The yeast assay was performed as described previously (Deng et al, 2012). In brief, the complete coding region, the N-terminal region, and the C-terminal region of WRKY42 were amplified using primer pairs 1532F/R, 153Y1F/R, and 153Y2F/R, respectively (Supplemental Table S1).…”

Cotton WRKY1 Mediates the Plant Defense-to-Development Transition during Infection of Cotton byVerticillium dahliaeby ActivatingJASMONATE ZIM-DOMAIN1Expression

“…HvWRKY1/38 is a key regulator of cold and drought responses, immune response, and seed germination (Marè et al, 2004;Shen et al, 2007;Zou et al, 2008). OsWRKY13 is involved in plant resistance to bacterial infection and responds to drought stress by selectively binding to different target genes (Deng et al, 2012b;Xiao et al, 2013). AtWRKY75 was first identified as a critical modulator of phosphate uptake and phosphate stress responses (Devaiah et al, 2007).…”

Two Different Transcripts of a LAMMER Kinase Gene Play Opposite Roles in Disease Resistance

“…For example, the enhanced Xoo resistance in OsMPK6-oe rice plants and OsEDR1-knockout rice plants was associated with activation of both SA-and JA-associated pathways (Shen et al, 2010(Shen et al, , 2011. The Xoo resistance mediated by rice OsWRKY45-2 or C3H12 was associated with JA, but not SA (Tao et al, 2009;Deng et al, 2012). Furthermore, exogenous application of JA can enhance the resistance of rice to Xoo (Yamada et al, 2012;Ke et al, 2014).…”

“…A recombinant inbred line segregation population developed from a cross between susceptible Zhenshan 97 and Minghui 63 has been used to study quantitative disease resistance against Xoo, and several defense-responsive genes contributing to resistance QTLs have been characterized by using this population (Qiu et al, 2007;Ding et al, 2008;Hu et al, 2008;Deng et al, 2012). We also used this population to comap OsDR11 and resistance QTLs.…”