Abstract
The Xo1 locus in the heirloom rice variety Carolina Gold Select confers resistance to bacterial leaf streak and bacterial blight, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pvs. oryzicola and oryzae, respectively. Resistance is triggered by pathogen-delivered transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) independent of their ability to activate transcription, and is suppressed by variants called truncTALEs common among Asian strains. By transformation of the susceptible variety Nipponbare, we show that one of 14 nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat (NLR) protein genes at the locus, with a zfBED domain, is the Xo1 gene. Analyses of published transcriptomes revealed that the Xo1-mediated response is similar to those of NLR resistance genes Pia and Rxo1 and distinct from that associated with induction of the executor resistance gene Xa23, and that a truncTALE dampens or abolishes activation of defense-associated genes by Xo1. In Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, fluorescently-tagged Xo1 protein, like TALEs and truncTALEs, localized to the nucleus. And, endogenous Xo1 specifically co-immunoprecipitated from rice leaves with a pathogen-delivered, epitope-tagged truncTALE. These observations suggest that suppression of Xo1-function by truncTALEs occurs through direct or indirect physical interaction. They further suggest that effector co-immunoprecipitation may be effective for identifying or characterizing other resistance genes.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Funding:
National Science Foundation (IOS-1444511 to AB)
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture (2018-67011-28025 to AR)
Gatsby Charitable Foundation (to MM)
Some improvements following an initial review. An error in figure 2 and figure 2 legend was corrected. Sections were re-written to make clear the lack of evidence for physical characterization between TALEs and Xo1. Figure 4 was modified for clarity. A principal component analysis was added to quantify relationships among expression datasets (Fig 2).