Discovery of new mechanism of pathogen invasion on plants can inhibit the growth of pathogens

Between rice and pathogen, there are also stories similar to "attack and defense" in human society Wang Shiping, Professor of the State Key Laboratory of crop genetic improvement, central China Agricultural University, has made a new study, which shows that the dominant xa13 gene, which is essential for rice growth and reproduction, is used to reduce the distribution of copper in rice conduit and damage rice; meanwhile, the recessive disease resistance gene xa13, which is not activated by the bacterial blight, is produced in rice, which can suppress the copper content in rice conduit To control the growth of bacterial blight so as to make rice resistant to disease This study not only revealed a new mechanism that pathogenic bacteria use host genes to conquer the host, but also revealed a typical example that may involve the coevolution of rice and pathogen Relevant research papers were published online in the journal plant cell on September 17 The magazine takes this article as a key recommendation article and distributes the introduction articles online The first author is Yuan Meng, a doctoral student, and the corresponding author is Wang Shiping It was found that some bacterial blight were very sensitive to copper Increasing the content of copper in the medium could inhibit the growth and reproduction of this kind of bacterial blight Rice absorbs copper from the root and transports it to all parts of the plant through a conduit, which is the conduit through which bacterial blight spreads and causes disease in rice Increasing the content of copper in the vessel will inhibit the growth and reproduction of bacterial blight Further studies showed that the cunning pathogen could use xa13 gene, which is indispensable for rice pollen development, to eliminate the inhibition of copper in the conduit By activating the expression of xa13 gene, bacterial blight can regulate the redistribution of copper in rice Xa13 protein and two other proteins copt1 and copt5 work together on the cell membrane to transport the copper out of the cell into the cell, so as to reduce the copper in the conduit, so that bacterial blight can propagate and spread in the conduit, causing rice diseases Copper is a necessary trace element for plant growth and development, and also the main component of some pesticides The widespread use of pesticides containing copper has resulted in some resistance to bacterial blight The pathogen can secrete an effector protein into rice cells, which binds to the promoter of xa13 gene and activates its expression In order to deal with this kind of bacterial blight, the recessive disease resistance gene xa13 with promoter mutation was produced in rice Its expression was not activated by the bacterial blight, so that the copper content in the rice conduit could inhibit the growth of the bacterial blight, so that the rice was resistant to the disease Understanding the mechanism of how the pathogen invades the plant will help to effectively control crop diseases According to Wang Shiping, bacterial blight caused by bacterial blight is one of the important diseases of rice, which once reduced the global rice production by 70% Understanding the mechanism of bacterial blight on rice will help to design effective ways to cultivate resistant rice varieties.