Knockout of OsWRKY71 impairs Bph15-mediated resistance against brown planthopper in rice

Xiaozun Li; Jian Zhang; Xinxin Shangguan; Jingjing Yin; Lili Zhu; Jie Hu; Bo Du; Wentang Lv

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1260526

Knockout of OsWRKY71 impairs Bph15-mediated resistance against brown planthopper in rice

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Nov 2:14:1260526. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1260526. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xiaozun Li^#¹, Jian Zhang^#¹, Xinxin Shangguan^{2

3}, Jingjing Yin¹, Lili Zhu², Jie Hu⁴, Bo Du², Wentang Lv¹

Affiliations

¹ Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Plant Genetics and Molecular Breeding, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The Bph15 gene, known for its ability to confer resistance to the brown planthopper (BPH; Nilaparvata lugens Stål), has been extensively employed in rice breeding. However, the molecular mechanism by which Bph15 provides resistance against BPH in rice remains poorly understood. In this study, we reported that the transcription factor OsWRKY71 was highly responsive to BPH infestation and exhibited early-induced expression in Bph15-NIL (near-isogenic line) plants, and OsWRKY71 was localized in the nucleus of rice protoplasts. The knockout of OsWRKY71 in the Bph15-NIL background by CRISPR-Cas9 technology resulted in an impaired Bph15-mediated resistance against BPH. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the transcript profiles responsive to BPH differed between the wrky71 mutant and Bph15-NIL, and the knockout of OsWRKY71 altered the expression of defense genes. Subsequent quantitative RT-PCR analysis identified three genes, namely sesquiterpene synthase OsSTPS2, EXO70 family gene OsEXO70J1, and disease resistance gene RGA2, which might participate in BPH resistance conferred by OsWRKY71 in Bph15-NIL plants. Our investigation demonstrated the pivotal involvement of OsWRKY71 in Bph15-mediated resistance and provided new insights into the rice defense mechanisms against BPH.

Keywords: Bph15; OsWRKY71; brown planthopper; defense mechanism; rice; transcriptome.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31601650 and 32001921), the Young Talents Training Program of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Grant No. CXGC2018E16), the Open Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice (Wuhan University) (Grant No. KF201902), the Agricultural Variety Improvement Project of Shandong Province (Grant No. 2022LZGC024), and the Key Research and Development Plan of Shandong Province (Grant No. 2022TZXD0040).