AvrXa7-Xa7 mediated defense in rice can be suppressed by transcriptional activator-like effectors TAL6 and tal11a from xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola

Abstract

The closely related plant pathogens Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola and X. oryzae pv. oryzae cause bacterial leaf streak (BLS) and bacterial leaf blight (BLB), respectively, in rice. Unlike X. oryzae pv. oryzae, endogenous avirulenceresistance (avr-R) gene interactions have not been identified in the X. oryzae pv. oryzicola-rice pathosystem, though both X. oryzae pv. oryzicola and X. oryzae pv. oryzae possess transcriptional activator-like effectors (TALE), which are known to modulate R or S genes in rice. In this report, avrXa7, avrXa10, and avrXa27 from X. oryzae pv. oryzae were transferred into YNB0-17 and RS105, hypovirulent and hypervirulent strains, respectively, of X. oryzae pv. oryzicola. When YNB0-17 containing avrXa7, avrXa10, or avrXa27 was inoculated to rice, hypersensitive responses (HR) were elicited in rice cultivars containing the R genes Xa7, Xa10, and Xa27, respectively. By contrast, RS105 expressing avrXa27 elicited an HR in a rice cultivar containing Xa27 but the expression of avrXa7 and avrXa10 in RS105 did not result in HR in rice cultivars containing Xa7 and Xa10, correspondingly. Southern blot analysis demonstrated that YNB0-17 possesses only approximately nine putative tale genes, whereas the hypervirulent RS105 contains at least 20. Although YNB0-17 contains an intact type III secretion system (T3SS), its genome is lacking the T3SS effector genes avrRxo1 and xopO, which are present in RS105. The introduction of avrRxo1 and xopO into YNB0- 17 did not suppress avrXa7- or avrXa10-triggered immunity in rice. However, the transference of individual tale genes from RS105 into YNB0-17 led to the identification of tal6 and tal11a that suppressed avrXa7-Xa7-mediated defense. Thus, YNB0-17 may be a useful recipient for discovering such suppressors. This is the first report that coevolutionally generated tale genes in X. oryzae pv. oryzicola suppress gene-for-gene defense against BLB, which may explain the lack of BLS-resistant cultivars. © 2014 The American Phytopathological Society.