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R gene expression induced by a type-III effector triggers disease resistance in rice

Nature volume 435, pages 1122–1125 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Disease resistance (R) genes in plants encode products that specifically recognise incompatible pathogens and trigger a cascade of events leading to disease resistance in the host plant1. R-gene specificity is dictated by both host R genes and cognate avirulence (avr) genes in pathogens2,3. However, the basis of gene-for-gene specificity is not well understood. Here, we report the cloning of the R gene Xa27 from rice and the cognate avr gene avrXa27 from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Resistant and susceptible alleles of Xa27 encode identical proteins. However, expression of only the resistant allele occurs when a rice plant is challenged by bacteria harbouring avrXa27, whose product is a nuclear localized type-III effector. Induction of Xa27 occurs only in the immediate vicinity of infected tissue, whereas ectopic expression of Xa27 resulted in resistance to otherwise compatible strains of the pathogen. Thus Xa27 specificity towards incompatible pathogens involves the differential expression of the R gene in the presence of the AvrXa27 effector.

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Figure 1: AvrXa27 is an AvrBs3/PthA type-III effector.
Figure 2: Identification of Xa27.
Figure 3: Xa27 is induced specifically during challenge by bacteria containing avrXa27.
Figure 4: Ectopic expression of Xa27 confers resistance to compatible strains of X. oryzae pv.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Y. Teo for technical assistance, G. S. Khush, H. Leung and R. Nelson for Xa27 germplasm, Q. Zhang and J. E. Leach for X. oryzae pv. oryzae strains, K. Shimamoto for PR1 cDNA, CAMBIA for the pC1300 vector. This work was supported by the NRI programme of the US Department of Agriculture (F.F.W.); the Kansas Agriculture Experiment Station (B.Y. and F.F.W.); the intramural research funds from Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (Z.Y.); a competitive grant from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (Z.Y.). Author Contributions K.G., B.Y., D.T. and L.W. are all co-first authors. G.-L.W. initiated the preliminary studies of Xa27. Z.Y. designed and carried out data analysis. K.G., D.T. and L.W. conceived the experiment, and together with D.W., C.S., F.Y., Z.C. and Z.Y. carried it out. For avrXa27, B.Y., F.F.W. and Z.Y. designed and carried out data analysis, B.Y., together with D.T. and K.G., conducted the experiment. F.F.W. and Z.Y. co-wrote the paper.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Dongjiang Wang, Chellamma Sreekala, Fan Yang, Zhaoqing Chu & Guo-Liang Wang

    Present address: Laboratory of Plant Molecular Signalling, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

  2. Keyu Gu, Bing Yang, Dongsheng Tian and Lifang Wu: *These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, National University of Singapore, 1 Research Link, Singapore, 117604, Singapore

    Keyu Gu, Dongsheng Tian, Lifang Wu, Dongjiang Wang, Chellamma Sreekala, Fan Yang, Zhaoqing Chu & Zhongchao Yin

  2. Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66506, USA

    Bing Yang & Frank F. White

  3. Institute of Molecular Agrobiology, National University of Singapore, 1 Research Link, Singapore, 117604, Singapore

    Guo-Liang Wang

  4. Department of Plant Physiology, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305 8602, Japan

    Chellamma Sreekala

  5. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61, Biopolis Drive (Proteos), Singapore, 138673, Singapore

    Fan Yang

  6. Genome Institute of Singapore, 60 Biopolis Street, Singapore, 138672, Singapore

    Zhaoqing Chu

  7. Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA

    Guo-Liang Wang

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhongchao Yin.

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Competing interests

A patent on the Xa27 gene has been filed by Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory with Z.Y., G.-L.W., D.T. and K.G. as inventors.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table S1

Xa27 transgenic lines conferring race-specific resistance to X. oryzae pv. oryzae strains. (DOC 24 kb)

Supplementary Table S2

Ectopic expression of Xa27 conferring resistance to incompatible and compatible X. oryzae pv. oryzae strains. (DOC 22 kb)

Supplementary Figure S1

Amino acid sequences of AvrXa27 and its derivatives. (DOC 871 kb)

Supplementary Figure S2

Map-based cloning of Xa27 locus. (DOC 284 kb)

Supplementary Figure S3

Alignment and conserved domains of Xa27 and its paralogs from rice cultivar Nipponbare. (DOC 545 kb)

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Gu, K., Yang, B., Tian, D. et al. R gene expression induced by a type-III effector triggers disease resistance in rice. Nature 435, 1122–1125 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03630

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