Rice feeds half the world’s population, and rice blast is often a destructive disease that results in significant crop loss. Non-race-specific resistance has been more effective in controlling crop diseases than race-specific resistance because of its broad spectrum and durability. Through a genome-wide association study, we report the identification of a natural allele of a C2H2-type transcription factor in rice that confers non-race-specific resistance to blast. A survey of 3,000 sequenced rice genomes reveals that this allele exists in 10% of rice, suggesting that this favorable trait has been selected through breeding. This allele causes a single nucleotide change in the promoter of thebsr-d1gene, which results in reduced expression of the gene through the binding of the repressive MYB transcription factor and, consequently, an inhibition of H2O2degradation and enhanced disease resistance. Our discovery highlights this novel allele as a strategy for breeding durable resistance in rice.

中文翻译：

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水稻中转录因子的天然等位基因赋予广谱抗性。

水稻养活了世界一半的人口，稻瘟病通常是一种破坏性疾病，导致严重的农作物损失。非种族特异性抗性因其广谱和持久性而比种族特异性抗性更有效地控制了农作物疾病。通过全基因组关联研究，我们报告了水稻中C2H2型转录因子的天然等位基因的鉴定，该基因赋予了非种族特异性的抗稻瘟病性。一项对3,000个测序的水稻基因组的调查显示，该等位基因存在于10％的水稻中，这表明这种有利性状是通过育种选择的。该等位基因在bsr-d1基因的启动子中引起单个核苷酸变化，从而通过抑制性MYB转录因子的结合导致基因表达降低，因此，抑制H2O2降解并增强抗病性。我们的发现突出了这种新颖的等位基因，作为育种水稻持久抗性的策略。