Wild rice talks to helpful bacteria better than farmed rice
Vaccaro F, Amenta ML, Passeri I, Fagorzi C, Varriale S
Crop Improvement
Every time a crop gets bred for higher yield or easier harvest, it can lose quieter traits like this one, the ability to recruit helpful microbes, and this study shows that trait might be recoverable by looking back at wild relatives.
Plant roots leak out sugars and other chemicals that soil bacteria can sense and respond to, almost like a chemical conversation. Researchers compared how two helpful bacteria reacted to root chemicals from wild rice versus two common Italian rice varieties, and found the bacteria got much more 'excited' (turned on many more genes) around the wild rice. That suggests farmed rice, over generations of breeding, may have lost some of its ability to attract and work with beneficial microbes, a trait that could potentially be bred back in.
Key Findings
Two beneficial bacterial endophytes, Enterobacter asburiae RCA24 and Kosakonia sacchari RCA25, showed different transcriptional response patterns to root exudates from wild rice (Oryza rufipogon) versus two cultivated Italian rice varieties (Baldo and Vialone Nano).
Kosakonia sacchari RCA25 showed more extensive gene expression changes in response to wild rice exudates compared to cultivated rice exudates.
Rice plants inoculated with RCA24 showed broader transcriptional changes, especially in shoots, affecting defense responses, hormone signaling, and ribosome biogenesis, compared to plants inoculated with RCA25.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that wild rice ancestors interact much more actively with helpful soil bacteria than modern farmed rice varieties do, suggesting breeders may have accidentally bred away beneficial microbe partnerships that could help crops today.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Comparative transcriptomic analysis reveals distinct responses of beneficial bacterial endophytes to wild and cultivated rice root exudates.
Root exudates from Oryza rufi pogon elicit stronger transcriptional responses in benefi cial bacterial endophytes and, together with bacterial inoculation, reveal distinct plant responses compared ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Wild rice, also called manoomin, mnomen, psíŋ, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus Zizania, and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically and is still gathered and eaten in North America and, to a lesser extent...