Pathogen-induced methylglyoxal negatively regulates rice bacterial blight resistance by inhibiting OsCDR1 protease activity

Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzae(Xoo)causes bacterial blight(BB),a globally devastating disease of rice(Oryza sativa)that is responsible for significant crop loss.Sugars and sugar metabolites are important for pathogen infection,providing energy and regulating events associated with defense responses;howev-er,the mechanisms by which they regulate such events in BB are unclear.As an inevitable sugar metabolite,methylglyoxal(MG)is involved in plant growth and responses to various abiotic stresses,but the underlying mechanisms remain enigmatic.Whether and how MG functions in plant biotic stress responses is almost completely unknown.Here,we report that the Xoo strain PXO99 induces OsWRKY62.1 to repress transcrip-tion of OsGLY Il genes by directly binding to their promoters,resulting in overaccumulation of MG.MG negatively regulates rice resistance against Pxo99:osglyll2 mutants with higher MG levels are more sus-ceptible to the pathogen,whereas OsGLYIl2-overexpressing plants with lower MG content show greater resistance than the wild type.Overexpression of OsGLYll2 to prevent excessive MG accumulation confers broad-spectrum resistance against the biotrophic bacterial pathogens Xoo and Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzicola and the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani,which causes rice sheath blight.Further evidence shows that MG reduces rice resistance against PXO99 through CONSTITUTIVE DISEASE RESISTANCE 1(OsCDR1).MGmodifies the Arg97 residue of OsCDR1to inhibit its aspartic protease activ-ity,which is essential for OsCDR1-enhanced immunity.Taken together,these findings illustrate how Xoo promotes infection by hijacking a sugar metabolite in the host plant.