Epigenetic regulation of antagonistic receptors confers rice blast resistance with yield balance.
Yiwen DengKeran ZhaiZhen XieDongyong YangXudong ZhuJunzhong LiuXin WangPeng QinYuanzhu YangGuomin ZhangQun LiJianfu ZhangShuangqing WuJoëlle MilazzoBizeng MaoErtao WangHuaan XieDidier TharreauZuhua HePublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2017)
Crop breeding aims to balance disease resistance with yield; however, single resistance (R) genes can lead to resistance breakdown, and R gene pyramiding may affect growth fitness. Here we report that the rice Pigm locus contains a cluster of genes encoding nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors that confer durable resistance to the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae without yield penalty. Among these NLR receptors, PigmR confers broad-spectrum resistance, whereas PigmS competitively attenuates PigmR homodimerization to suppress resistance. PigmS expression, and thus PigmR-mediated resistance, are subjected to tight epigenetic regulation. PigmS increases seed production to counteract the yield cost induced by PigmR Therefore, our study reveals a mechanism balancing high disease resistance and yield through epigenetic regulation of paired antagonistic NLR receptors, providing a tool to develop elite crop varieties.