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Rice can “borrow” stronger immunity from other plant species, study shows
Estudio evidencia que la planta de arroz es capaz de adoptar la inmunidad de otras especies vegetales 


Davis, California, USA
April 3, 2015

Like most other plants, rice is well equipped with an effective immune system that enables it to detect and fend off disease-causing microbes. But that built-in immunity can be further boosted when the rice plant receives a receptor protein from a completely different plant species, suggests a new study led by UC Davis plant-disease experts.

The study findings, which may help increase health and productivity of rice, the staple food for half of the world’s population, are reported online in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

“Our results demonstrate that disease resistance in rice — and possibly related crop species — could very likely be enhanced by transferring genes responsible for specific immune receptors from dicotyledonous plants into rice, which is a monocotyledonous crop,” said lead author Benjamin Schwessinger, a postdoctoral scholar in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology.

Immune receptors vary between plant groups

Receptors are specialized proteins that can recognize molecular patterns associated with disease-causing microbes, including bacteria and fungi, at the beginning of an infection. These receptors are found on the surface of plant cells, where they play a key role in the plant’s early warning system.

Some of the receptors, however, occur only in certain groups of plant species.

For example, the monocotyledon plant group, including rice and other grasses that sprout with a single seed leaf, contains different receptor proteins than does the dicotyledon group, including plants like beans, which germinate with two seed leaves.

Borrowed receptors launch stronger immune response

In this study, Schwessinger and colleagues successfully transferred the gene for an immune receptor from the model plant Arabidopsis, a member of the mustard family, into rice.

The rice plants that subsequently expressed this gene and produced the related immune receptor proteins were able to sense Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, an important bacterial disease of rice.

This demonstrated that receptors introduced to rice from the Arabidopsis plants via genetic engineering were able to make use of the rice plants’ built-in immune signaling mechanisms and cause the rice plants to launch a stronger defensive immune response against the invading bacteria.

Other researchers on the study include Pamela Ronald in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology; Ofir Bahar, formerly of UC Davis and now at the Agricultural Research Organization’s Volcani Center in Israel; and Cyril Zipfil from the Sainsbury Laboratory in the UK.

Funding for the study was provided by the European Molecular Biology Organization, headquartered in Germany; the Human Frontier Science Program Organization of France; the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, headquartered in London; the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health.

More information

To hear Schwessinger briefly describe his research on plant immunity, visit The Academic Minute.

Similar studies involving the transfer of immune receptors between species are reported in the journals New Phytologist, PLOS Pathogens, and the Journal of Integrative Plant Biology.


Estudio evidencia que la planta de arroz es capaz de adoptar la inmunidad de otras especies vegetales 

Source: Fundacion Antama

Un nuevo estudio dirigido por la Universidad de California (Estados Unidos) evidencia que la inmunidad integrada de arroz se puede incrementar aún más cuando la planta recibe una proteína receptora de una especie de planta completamente diferente. En el estudio el equipo de investigadores han transferido al arroz un gen inmune de la planta modelo Arabidopsis, descubriendo que la planta de arroz expresaba este gen y producía las proteínas inmunes cuando sufría el ataque de una enfermedad bacteriana.

El estudio mostró que los receptores introducidos de las plantas Arabidopsis a través de la ingeniería genética fueron capaces de hacer uso de los mecanismos de señalización inmune incorporadas en las plantas de arroz. Esto permite que las plantas del arroz pongan en marcha una respuesta inmunitaria defensiva más fuerte contra las bacterias invasoras. Los hallazgos del estudio pueden ayudar a aumentar la salud y la productividad de arroz, alimento básico de la mitad de la población mundial.

“Nuestros resultados demuestran que la resistencia a las enfermedades en el arroz, y posiblemente de especies de cultivos relacionados, se podrían mejorar mediante la transferencia de genes responsables de receptores inmunes específicos de plantas dicotiledóneas en el arroz, que es un cultivo monocotiledóneas”, explica el autor Benjamin Schwessinger, del Departamento de UC Davis de Fitopatología.

Los receptores son proteínas especializadas que pueden reconocer patrones moleculares asociados con microbios causantes de enfermedades, incluyendo bacterias y hongos, en el comienzo de una infección. Estos receptores se encuentran en la superficie de las células vegetales, donde juegan un papel clave en el sistema de alerta temprana de la planta.



More solutions from: University of California, Davis


Website: http://www.ucdavis.edu

Published: May 14, 2015


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