Rice cellulose synthase-like protein OsCSLD4 coordinates the trade-off between plant growth and defense

Abstract

Plant cell wall is a complex and changeable structure, which is very important for plant growth and development. It is clear that cell wall polysaccharide synthases have critical functions in rice growth and abiotic stress, yet their role in plant response to pathogen invasion is poorly understood. Here, we describe a dwarf and narrowed leaf in Hejiang 19 (dnl19) mutant in rice, which shows multiple growth defects such as reduced plant height, enlarged lamina joint angle, curled leaf morphology, and a decrease in panicle length and seed setting. MutMap analysis, genetic complementation and gene knockout mutant show that cellulose synthase-like D4 (OsCSLD4) is the causal gene for DNL19. Loss function of OsCSLD4 leads to a constitutive activation of defense response in rice. After inoculation with rice blast and bacterial blight, dnl19 displays an enhanced disease resistance. Widely targeted metabolomics analysis reveals that disruption of OsCSLD4 in dnl19 resulted in significant increase of L-valine, L-asparagine, L-histidine, L-alanine, gentisic acid, but significant decrease of L-aspartic acid, malic acid, 6-phosphogluconic acid, glucose 6-phosphate, galactose 1-phosphate, gluconic acid, D-aspartic acid. Collectively, our data reveals the importance of OsCSLD4 in balancing the trade-off between rice growth and defense.

SNP Loci and Favorable Haplotype Mining for Alkalinity Tolerance in the Rice Bud Stage

“…At least six genes associated with cloned alkalinity tolerance in rice have been cloned [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. OsLOL5 is a rice LSD1-like-type zinc finger protein (ZFP) gene containing two C2C2 domains, similar to LSD1.…”

“…OsCSLD4 is a 1,4-β-D-xylan synthetase gene in the hemicellulose biosynthesis pathway [21]. Loss of function of OsCSLD4 induces the constitutive activation of the defense response in rice [22]. OsCSLD4 overexpression increases the grain width and weight.…”

Arabidopsis Cys2/His2 Zinc Finger Transcription Factor ZAT18 Modulates the Plant Growth-Defense Tradeoff

“…To fight these invasions, plants activate defense responses, including pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI), to protect themselves [ 1 , 2 ]. However, constitutive activation of defense responses is an energy-consuming process and generally results in growth penalties [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. For example, prolonged treatment with pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), which activates PTI responses, significantly inhibits Arabidopsis growth [ 7 ].…”