OsMYB306-OsRAV11 Regulates Resistance of Rice to Striped Stem Borer by Modulating Serotonin Biosynthesis.
Zhang JR, Wang L, Chen YF, Guo XH, Jiang M
Crispr
Rice you eat likely came from fields doused in pesticides to fight the striped stem borer — this discovery points toward a gene-editing shortcut that could grow the same rice with far less chemical input.
Rice plants make serotonin — the same feel-good chemical found in our brains — when caterpillar pests called striped stem borers start feeding on them. Scientists were surprised to find that more serotonin actually makes the rice plant worse at defending itself, not better. They identified the two proteins that normally keep serotonin production dialed down, and showed that tweaking those proteins with precision gene editing could help grow pest-resistant rice without spraying fields with insecticides.
Key Findings
Two proteins, OsMYB306 and OsRAV11, work together to suppress the gene (OsT5H) responsible for serotonin production in rice; OsRAV11 boosts OsMYB306's repressive effect.
CRISPR-knockout rice plants lacking these repressors accumulated higher serotonin levels and showed significantly reduced resistance to striped stem borer infestation.
Conversely, overexpressing OsRAV11 decreased serotonin production, suggesting that enhancing this repressor could be a viable genome-editing strategy for pest resistance.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers discovered a molecular two-protein switch in rice that normally keeps serotonin production in check during pest attacks. Counterintuitively, higher serotonin levels make rice more vulnerable to the striped stem borer, so disrupting this switch with CRISPR gene editing could produce naturally pest-resistant rice with less need for chemical pesticides.
Abstract Preview
Striped stem borer (SSB; Chilo suppressalis Walker) is one of the most destructive pests in rice production. Previous studies have demonstrated that SSB infestation induces transcription of OsT5H (...
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