Ectopic Expression of Executor Gene Enhances Resistance to Both Bacterial and Fungal Diseases in Rice.

Bacterial blight (BB) and bacterial leaf streak (BLS), caused by phytopathogenic bacteria pv. () and pv. (), respectively, are the most serious bacterial diseases of rice, while blast, caused by (. ), is the most devastating fungal disease in rice. Generating broad-spectrum resistance to these diseases is one of the key approaches for the sustainable production of rice. Executor () genes are a unique type of plant resistance () genes, which can specifically trap transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) of pathogens and trigger an intense defense reaction characterized by a hypersensitive response in the host. This strong resistance is a result of programed cell death induced by the gene expression that is only activated upon the binding of a TALE to the effector-binding element (EBE) located in the gene promoter during the pathogen infection. Our previous studies revealed that the gene has the broadest and highest resistance to BB. To investigate whether the -mediated resistance is efficient against pv. (), the causal agent of BLS, we generated a new version of , designated as , to specifically trap the conserved TALEs from multiple strains. The results showed that the confers broad resistance against both BB and BLS in rice. Moreover, our further experiment on the transgenic plants firstly demonstrated that the -gene-mediated defensive reaction is also effective against . , the causal agent of the most devastating fungal disease in rice. Our current work provides a new strategy to exploit the full potential of the -gene-mediated disease resistance in rice.