Chinese scientists have successfully cloned the gene of "ksing" of rice white leaf disease

White leaf disease is one of the "three major diseases" in rice production in China, which seriously affects the yield and quality of rice.
, before the 1980s, white-leaf disease often led to a 20 to 30 per cent reduction in rice production, up to 50 per cent in severe cases, or even a dead end.
according to Zhou Jianmin, a researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, white leaf disease has been effectively controlled due to the introduction of resistant genes such as Xa4, Xa21 and Xa23 in China's main rice varieties.
with the global warming, white leaf disease bacteria continue to mutate, a new type of pathogenic variants have emerged, resulting in the main rice varieties gradually lose disease resistance.
years, rice white leaf disease is increasing year by year, the problem of 'new diseases' is becoming more and more serious, and the loss of yield is huge.
," Zhou said.
, Xa7 has long been internationally recognized as the most enduring "star gene" for resistance to white leaf disease bacteria, 20 years after its initial discovery.
because the sequence of the disease-resistant genetic point is completely different from the reference genome, many laboratories in the world have not been successful in the identification of the Xa7 gene.
Zhejiang Normal University Ma Bojun team and China Rice Research Institute Qian Qian former academician team for many years jointly, recently made a breakthrough - on the basis of fine positioning, through radiation mutation and genetic screening, finally locked Xa7 in the 28kb range, and through a large number of molecular function verification, successful cloning of Xa7 gene.
, the study also showed that at high temperatures, Xa7 was induced to produce a defensive response to prevent germ invasion.
the gene has greater breeding value in the context of global warming.
, the study has been published in the journal Plant Communications.