Rice (Oryza sativa) plays a significant role in achieving global food security. However, it suffers from several biotic and abiotic stresses that seriously affect its production. Rice blast caused by hemibiotropic fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most widespread and devastating diseases of rice. The crop rice is vulnerable to this pathogen from seedlings to adult plant stages affecting leaves, nodes, collar, panicles and roots. This disease can be effectively managed through host resistance. Of the 100 blast resistance genes, identified and mapped in different genotypes of rice, 19 genes have been cloned and characterized at the molecular level. Most of these genes belong to nucleotide binding sites and leucine rich repeats. Besides more than 350 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have also been identified in the rice genome. These blast resistance genes and QTLs have been successfully mobilized in the commercial cultivars by using standard plant breeding techniques and also by marker assisted backcross breeding. With the advent of latest molecular biology techniques and our understanding of the basic mechanisms of Magnaporthe-rice pathosystem, the strategies for broad-spectrum resistance to M. oryzae can be designed in future.

A meta-analysis was performed to understand the role of zinc finger domains in proteins of resistance (R) genes cloned from different crops. We analyzed protein sequences of seventy R genes of various crops in which twenty six proteins were found to have zinc finger domains along with nucleotide binding sites - leucine rice repeats (NBS-LRR) domains. We identified thirty four zinc finger domains in the R proteins of nine crops and were grouped into 19 types of zinc fingers. The size of individual zinc finger domain within the R genes varied from 11 to 84 amino acids, whereas the size of proteins containing these domains varied from 263 to 1305 amino acids. The biophysical analysis revealed that molecular weight of Pi54 zinc finger was lowest whereas the highest one was found in rice Pib zinc finger named as Transposes Transcription Factor (TTF). The instability (R² = 0.95) and the aliphatic (R² = 0.94) indices profile of zinc finger domains follows the polynomial distribution pattern. The pairwise identity analysis showed that the Lin11, Isl-1 & Mec-3 (LIM) zinc finger domain of rice blast resistance protein pi21 have 12.3% similarity with the nuclear transcription factor, X-box binding-like 1 (NFX) type zinc finger domain of Pi54 protein. For the first time, we reported that Pi54 (Pi-k^h-Tetep), a rice blast resistance (R) protein have a small zinc finger domain of NFX type located on the C-terminal in between NBS and LRR domains of the R-protein. Compositional analysis depicted by the helical wheel diagram revealed the presence of a hydrophobic region within this domain which might help in exposing the LRR region for a possible R-Avr interaction. This domain is unique among all other cloned plant disease resistance genes and might play an important role in broad-spectrum nature of rice blast resistance gene Pi54.

The Pi54 gene (Pi-k^h) confers a high degree of resistance to diverse strains of the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. In order to understand the genome-wide co-expression of genes in the transgenic rice plant Taipei 309 (TP) containing the Pi54 gene, microarray analysis was performed at 72 h post-inoculation of the M. oryzae strain PLP-1. A total of 1154 differentially expressing genes were identified in TP-Pi54 plants. Of these, 587 were up-regulated, whereas 567 genes were found to be down-regulated. 107 genes were found that were exclusively up-regulated and 58 genes that were down- regulated in the case of TP-Pi54. Various defence response genes, such as callose, laccase, PAL, and peroxidase, and genes related to transcription factors like NAC6, Dof zinc finger, MAD box, bZIP, and WRKY were found to be up-regulated in the transgenic line. The enzymatic activities of six plant defence response enzymes, such as peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, phenylalanine ammonia lyase, β-glucosidase, β-1,3-glucanase, and chitinase, were found to be significantly high in TP-Pi54 at different stages of inoculation by M. oryzae. The total phenol content also increased significantly in resistant transgenic plants after pathogen inoculation. This study suggests the activation of defence response and transcription factor-related genes and a higher expression of key enzymes involved in the defence response pathway in the rice line TP-Pi54, thus leading to incompatible host–pathogen interaction.

Summary: Cytokinin group of phytohormones regulate root elongation and branching during post‐embryonic development. Cytokinin‐degrading enzymes cytokinin oxidases/dehydrogenases (CKXs) have been deployed to investigate biological activities of cytokinin and to engineer root growth. We expressed chickpea cytokinin oxidase 6 (CaCKX6) under the control of a chickpea root‐specific promoter of CaWRKY31 in Arabidopsis thaliana and chickpea having determinate and indeterminate growth patterns, respectively, to study the effect of cytokinin depletion on root growth and drought tolerance. Root‐specific expression of CaCKX6 led to a significant increase in lateral root number and root biomass in Arabidopsis and chickpea without any penalty to vegetative and reproductive growth of shoot. Transgenic chickpea lines showed increased CKX activity in root. Soil‐grown advanced chickpea transgenic lines exhibited higher root‐to‐shoot biomass ratio and enhanced long‐term drought tolerance. These chickpea lines were not compromised in root nodulation and nitrogen fixation. The seed yield in some lines was up to 25% higher with no penalty in protein content. Transgenic chickpea seeds possessed higher levels of zinc, iron, potassium and copper. Our results demonstrated the potential of cytokinin level manipulation in increasing lateral root number and root biomass for agronomic trait improvement in an edible legume crop with indeterminate growth habit.