en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration with domestic universities in China, has revealed a new mechanism by which a single-base mutation in a rice susceptibility gene can significantly enhance plant resistance to root-knot nematodes. The research findings were published in Nature Communications.

Over a decade of research, the team successfully identified a susceptibility gene from nearly 400 rice germplasm accessions. This gene acts as an "accomplice" during nematode invasion—after infection, nematodes actively suppress the rice immune response, facilitating their parasitism and development. Further studies revealed that a "minor variation" of just one base in the key promoter element region of this gene in some susceptible rice varieties significantly reduces the activity of this "accomplice" gene, thereby enhancing rice resistance to nematodes. Notably, mutations in the homologous gene in Arabidopsis thaliana also showed increased resistance to nematodes, indicating that this mechanism is highly similar in both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants, providing a potential target for broad-spectrum nematode-resistant breeding.

This research was supported by the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National Key Research and Development Program.