Flexible growth and immune responses in rice: Plants that are fighting microbial pathogens often divert resources that could be used for growth into the immune response. For crops, this translates into lower yield when plant immunity is activated. Wang et al. show that, in rice, reversible phosphorylation of a key transcription factor allows the plant to defend against fungal attack when needed but then, within days, reallocate resources back to growth (see the Perspective by Greene and Dong). Thus, both pathogen defense and crop yield can be sustained. Science , this issue p. 1026 ; see also p. 976

Background: Transient assays using protoplasts are ideal for processing large quantities of genetic data coming out of hi-throughput assays. Previously, protoplasts have routinely been prepared from dicot tissue or cell suspension cultures and yet a good system for rice protoplast isolation and manipulation is lacking. Results: We have established a rice seedling protoplast system designed for the rapid characterization of large numbers of genes. We report optimized methods for protoplast isolation from 7–14 day old etiolated rice seedlings. We show that the reporter genes luciferase GL2 and GUS are maximally expressed approximately 20 h after polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated transformation into protoplasts. In addition we found that transformation efficiency varied significantly with plasmid size. Five micrograms of a 4.5 kb plasmid resulted in 60–70% transformation efficiency. In contrast, using 50 μg of a 12 kb plasmid we obtained a maximum of 25–30% efficiency. We also show that short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can be used to silence exogenous genes quickly and efficiently. An siRNA targeting luciferase resulted in a significant level of silencing after only 3 hours and up to an 83% decrease in expression. We have also isolated protoplasts from cells prepared from fully green tissue. These green tissue-derived protoplasts can be transformed to express high levels of luciferase activity and should be useful for assaying light sensitive cellular processes. Conclusion: We report a system for isolation, transformation and gene silencing of etiolated rice leaf and stem-derived protoplasts. Additionally, we have extended the technology to protoplasts isolated from fully green tissue. The protoplast system will bridge the gap between hi-throughput assays and functional biology as it can be used to quickly study large number of genes for which the function is unknown.

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae causes bacterial blight of rice (Oryza sativa L.), a major disease that constrains production of this staple crop in many parts of the world. We report here on the complete genome sequence of strain PXO99A and its comparison to two previously sequenced strains, KACC10331 and MAFF311018, which are highly similar to one another. The PXO99A genome is a single circular chromosome of 5,240,075 bp, considerably longer than the genomes of the other strains (4,941,439 bp and 4,940,217 bp, respectively), and it contains 5083 protein-coding genes, including 87 not found in KACC10331 or MAFF311018. PXO99A contains a greater number of virulence-associated transcription activator-like effector genes and has at least ten major chromosomal rearrangements relative to KACC10331 and MAFF311018. PXO99A contains numerous copies of diverse insertion sequence elements, members of which are associated with 7 out of 10 of the major rearrangements. A rapidly-evolving CRISPR (clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats) region contains evidence of dozens of phage infections unique to the PXO99A lineage. PXO99A also contains a unique, near-perfect tandem repeat of 212 kilobases close to the replication terminus. Our results provide striking evidence of genome plasticity and rapid evolution within Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. The comparisons point to sources of genomic variation and candidates for strain-specific adaptations of this pathogen that help to explain the extraordinary diversity of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae genotypes and races that have been isolated from around the world.

Targeted insertion of transgenes at pre-determined plant genomic safe harbors provides a desirable alternative to insertions at random sites achieved through conventional methods. Most existing cases of targeted gene insertion in plants have either relied on the presence of a selectable marker gene in the insertion cassette or occurred at low frequency with relatively small DNA fragments (<1.8 kb). Here, we report the use of an optimized CRISPR-Cas9-based method to achieve the targeted insertion of a 5.2 kb carotenoid biosynthesis cassette at two genomic safe harbors in rice. We obtain marker-free rice plants with high carotenoid content in the seeds and no detectable penalty in morphology or yield. Whole-genome sequencing reveals the absence of off-target mutations by Cas9 in the engineered plants. These results demonstrate targeted gene insertion of marker-free DNA in rice using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, and offer a promising strategy for genetic improvement of rice and other crops.

Summary: The Arabidopsis NPR1/NIM1 gene is a key regulator of systemic acquired resistance (SAR). Over‐expression of NPR1 leads to enhanced resistance in Arabidopsis. To investigate the role of NPR1 in monocots, we over‐expressed the Arabidopsis NPR1 in rice and challenged the transgenic plants with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), the rice bacterial blight pathogen. The transgenic plants displayed enhanced resistance to Xoo. RNA blot hybridization indicates that enhanced resistance requires expression of NPR1 mRNA above a threshold level in rice. To identify components mediating the resistance controlled by NPR1, we used NPR1 as bait in a yeast two‐hybrid screen. We isolated four cDNA clones encoding rice NPR1 interactors (named rTGA2.1, rTGA2.2, rTGA2.3 and rLG2) belonging to the bZIP family. rTGA2.1, rTGA2.2 and rTGA2.3 share 75, 76 and 78% identity with Arabidopsis TGA2, respectively. In contrast, rLG2 shares highest identity (81%) to the maize liguleless (LG2) gene product, which is involved in establishing the leaf blade–sheath boundary. The interaction of NPR1 with the rice bZIP proteins in yeast was impaired by the npr1‐1 and npr1‐2 mutations, but not by the nim1‐4 mutation. The NPR1–rTGA2.1 interaction was confirmed by an in vitro pull‐down experiment. In gel mobility shift assays, rTGA2.1 binds to the rice RCH10 promoter and to a cis‐element required sequence‐specifically for salicylic acid responsiveness. This is the first demonstration that the Arabidopsis NPR1 gene can enhance disease resistance in a monocot plant. These results also suggest that monocot and dicot plants share a conserved signal transduction pathway controlling NPR1‐mediated resistance.