A new NLR disease resistance gene Xa47 confers durable and broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial blight in rice

Abstract

Bacterial blight (BB) induced by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is a devastating bacterial disease in rice. The use of disease resistance (R) genes is the most efficient method to control BB. Members of the nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat containing protein (NLR) family have significant roles in plant defense. In this study, Xa47, a new bacterial blight R gene encoding a typical NLR, was isolated from G252 rice material, and XA47 was localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Among 180 rice materials tested, Xa47 was discovered in certain BB-resistant materials. Compared with the wild-type G252, the knockout mutants of Xa47 was more susceptible to Xoo. By contrast, overexpression of Xa47 in the susceptible rice material JG30 increased BB resistance. The findings indicate that Xa47 positively regulates the Xoo stress response. Consequently, Xa47 may have application potential in the genetic improvement of plant disease resistance. The molecular mechanism of Xa47 regulation merits additional examination.

Constructed Rice Tracers Identify the Major Virulent Transcription Activator-Like Effectors of the Bacterial Leaf Blight Pathogen

“…Xoo induces disease and host susceptibility by injecting TALEs into plant cells; this results in TALE binding to highly-conserved, cognate EBEs in the promoters of known OsSWEET genes. Traditional differential rice varieties for bacterial blight generally encode a series of resistance genes (Nugroho et al 2022 ; Ogawa 1993 ); however, 47 R genes have been identified in rice for bacterial blight resistance (Lu et al 2022 ), which makes it extremely difficult to construct NILs based on R genes. In contrast, susceptibility genes have limited diversity and only three S genes have been identified that are targeted by Xoo in nature; this suggests that effectors with new EBE-binding motifs may not evolve quickly (Oliva et al 2019 ; Xu et al 2019 ).…”

“…Breeding plant varieties resistant to pathogens is the most effective and economical approach to control disease. To date, 47 genes conferring resistance to Xoo have been identified, and 13 cloned R genes are associated with TALEs (Jiang et al 2020 ; Zhang et al 2020 ; Ji et al 2020 ; Chen et al 2021 ; Huang et al 2023 ; Lu et al 2022 ). Unfortunately, the constant evolution in pathogen populations weakens the effectiveness of race-specific R genes (Li et al 2020b ).…”

Deciphering the roles of unknown/uncharacterized genes in plant development and stress responses

“…The BB resistance gene Xa43 was recently identified in Zhangpu wild rice (Oryza rufipogon) (Huang et al, 2023). A new NLR disease resistance gene Xa47 has long-term resistance to rice BB disease (Lu et al, 2022b). Xa26(t), which was identified in rice variety Minghui 63, has a dominant effect on the Chinese Xoo strain JL691 at both the seedling and adult stages (Yang et al, 2003) (Figure 4C).…”

Deep learning-based method to identify disease-resistance proteins inOryza sativaand relative species

“…Recently, a cognate resistance gene, Xa7 , has been identified as displaying durable resistance in rice varieties under field conditions (Zhao et al, 2022). In another study, a novel nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat-containing protein (NLR) family Xa47 gene have been identified with broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial blight disease (Lu et al, 2022). Furthermore, a recent proteomic study indicated that infected transgenic rice plants exhibit stimulation in the protein 14–3–3GF14f, which is involved in signal transduction pathways (Molla et al, 2020).…”