Overexpression of OsCSP41b Enhances Rice Tolerance to Sheath Blight Caused by Rhizoctonia solani.

ABSTRACT: Sheath blight (ShB), caused by the necrotrophic fungus Rhizoctonia solani (R. solani), poses severe threats to global rice production. Developing a resistant variety with an ShB-resistance gene is one of most efficient and economical approaches to control the disease. Here, we identified a highly conserved chloroplast-localized stem-loop-binding protein encoding gene (OsCSP41b), which shows great potential in developing an ShB-resistant variety. OsCSP41b-knockout mutants exhibit chlorotic leaves and increased ShB susceptibility, whereas OsCSP41b-overexpressing lines (CSP41b-OE) display significantly enhanced resistance to R. solani, as well as to drought, and salinity stresses. Notably, CSP41b-OE lines present a completely comparable grain yield to the wild type (WT). Transcriptomic analys

SUBMITTER: Zhao J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12387978 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature