National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences

Riken Corporation

Shoji Sugano

Hiroshi Takatsuji

Hirohiko Hirochika

Minami Matsui

Masaki Mori

Nagao Hayashi

Chang-Jie Jiang

Hisatoshi Kaku

Kenji Oda

Hironori Kaminaka

Masaki Shimono

A three-step screening of selection for resistance against pathogenic bacteria infection, selection for resistance against pathogenic fungi infection, and selection for sensitivity to salicylic acid was carried out onlines highly expressing rice full-length cDNA (rice-FOXlines) which were prepared by using a FOX hunting system. As a result, oneline (line K15424) selected in all of the three types of screening was successfully selected. Line K15424 carries a rice full-length cDNA. Rice overexpressing AK070024 was produced, and resistance against rice bacterial leaf blight was assayed using the T1 generation. As a result, it was confirmed that AK070024-overexpressing rice is resistant against bacterial leaf blight and blast.

Rice gene capable of imparting wide-spectrum disease resistance

The present inventors analyzed genes involved in plant disease resistance. As a result, they discovered the transcription factor gene OsWRKY45, which is induced in leaf blades of rice plants by activating the systemic acquired resistance (SAR) that plants inherently have, i.e., by treating rice plants with benzothiadiazole (hereafter may be abbreviated as BTH), which is an agent thought to induce disease resistance in plants. It was further discovered that rice blast disease resistance and rice bacterial leaf blight resistance were markedly improved by reintroducing the gene into rice plants and constitutively expressing it.

Improving disease resistance in plants by introducing transcription factor gene

To investigate the function of ZPT2-3, petunia transformants overexpressing the ZPT2-3 gene under the control of the CamV 35S promoter were generated to investigate the presence or absence of tolerance against desiccation stress treatment. Surprisingly, petunia plant transformants showed significant tolerance against desiccation as compared to the wild type plants. In addition, neither growth abnormality nor morphological abnormality was observed in petunia plants, and thus overexpression of the ZPT2-3 gene was revealed to have no adverse effects on plant growth.

Use of zinc finger transcription factor zpt2-3 to generate plants with increased desiccation tolerance

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki, Japan

Shoji Sugano