Rice gene discovery could reduce need for fungicide sprays
Wang FZ, Bao Y, Qiu J, Chen MX, Jiang H
Crispr
If you've ever lost tomato or squash plants to a fungal blight that seemed to appear overnight, this points toward breeding crops that fight back on their own instead of relying on repeated fungicide sprays.
Rice plants have tiny bump-like structures on their leaf surface called papillae that act as a first line of defense against fungal invaders. Researchers found a specific gene that controls how well these structures work, and when they turned up its activity, the rice leaves got stiffer, packed in more silicon (the same element in sand and glass), and became resistant to many different fungal diseases at once, all without slowing the plant's growth.
Key Findings
A new protoplast-based CRISPR activation screening method (dCas9-TV) was developed to systematically test gain-of-function gene effects in rice cells
The screen identified OsTV1, a receptor kinase specifically active in leaf papillae, as a positive regulator of fungal resistance
Overexpressing OsTV1 increased silicon deposition and leaf rigidity and boosted basal defense gene expression, giving broad-spectrum fungal resistance with no observed growth penalty
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found a gene in rice that acts like a security guard on leaf surfaces, helping the plant build tougher, silicon-reinforced defenses against fungal disease. Boosting this gene's activity made rice resistant to multiple fungal infections without hurting its growth.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Cell-based CRISPRa screen identifies a papillae-specific receptor kinase mediating broad-spectrum fungal resistance in rice.
Gain-of-function screens enable the discovery of gene functions and candidate targets for molecular breeding. Here we developed a protoplast-based dCas9-TV-mediated CRISPR activation screen in rice...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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