Improving Rice Blast Resistance by Mining Broad-Spectrum Resistance Genes at Pik Locus

Magnaporthe oryzae is known for its genetic diversity and pathogenic variability,leading to rapid breakdown of resistance in rice.Incorporating multiple broad-spectrum blast resistance genes into rice cultivars would extend disease resistance longevity.Effective resistance breeding in rice therefore requires continual enrichment of the reservoir of resistance genes and alleles.We conducted a large-scale screen of rice blast resistance in about 2000 rice accessions.Among them,247 accessions showed at least medium resistance to the natural infection of rice blast and 7 novel Pik alleles were identified from them.Variations in gene sequences were then correlated with the phenotypic trait to enable the identification of favorable alleles.Among the seven novel Pik alleles,the resistant rate of Pik-R0/ME/7017 donors was greater than 80%,and the disease score was less than 3.Through molecular marker-assisted backcross breeding,we successfully transferred the three Pik alleles,Pik-R0/ME/7017,into an elite cultivated line Kongyu 131 to obtain BC_(3)F_(2)lines,which showed enhanced resistance to rice blast compared with the recurrent parent.Assessment of these near-isogenic lines in the greenhouse using 31 isolates of M.oryzae from Heilongjiang Province of China revealed that the resistant levels of the BC_(3)F_(2)lines with Pik-R0/ME/7017 were significantly higher than those of the established cloned resistance genes Pik-m and Pi1.Exploring such alleles will enrich our gene library for resistance to rice blast.

Association of HLA Alleles(A, B, DRB1) and HIV-1 Infection in the Han Population of Hubei, China

The HIV susceptibility and resistance alleles in the HLA genes were determined by investigating the distribution characteristics of the HLA alleles（A, B, and DRB1） in HIV-infected individuals of the Han population in Hubei, and by comparing these alleles with HIV-negative individuals from the same area. A cohort of 424 HIV-1 infected individuals were chosen as study subjects, and 836 HIV-negative healthy subjects from the same area served as the control population. HLA-A, B, and DRB1 allele typing was performed using polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes（PCR-SSOP） and polymerase chain reaction-sequencing based typing（PCR-SBT） techniques. Arlequin ver3.0 was used to analyze the allele and haplotype frequencies of HLA-A, B, and DRB 1, whereas Epi Info 7 and SPSS18.0 was used to analyze the differences in the HLA alleles between the HIV-1 positive and HIV-1 negative groups. A＊02：03, DRB1＊01：01, and DRB1＊15：01 alleles and their haplotypes as well as the HLA_Bw4-Bw6 hybrid showed a protective effect on HIV-1 infection. After adjusting for confounding factors such as age and sex, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that B＊15：02G, DRB1＊01：01, and DRB1＊15：01 subtypes were the resistance genes of HIV-1 infection, while B＊13：01 might increase susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. The correlation between A＊02：06 and B＊15：01G subtypes and HIV-1 susceptibility was independent of the age and sex of the host. This study demonstrated the influence of genetic factors in humans such as HLA polymorphism on individuals to resist HIV-1 infection. Association studies of HLA polymorphism, susceptibility/resistance to HIV-1 infection, and hosts＇ genetic background are of significant importance for research on HIV-1 pathogenesis and vaccine design.

A homing rescue gene drive with multiplexed gRNAs reaches high frequency in cage populations but generates functional resistance

CRISPR homing gene drives have considerable potential for managing populations of medically and agriculturally significant insects.They operate by Cas9 cleavage followed by homology-directed repair,copying the drive allele to the wild-type chromosome and thus increasing in frequency and spreading throughout a population.However,resistance alleles formed by end-joining repair pose a significant obstacle.To address this,we create a homing drive targeting the essential hairy gene in Drosophila melanogaster.Nonfunctional resistance alleles are recessive lethal,while drive carriers have a recoded“rescue”version of hairy.The drive inheritance rate is moderate,and multigenerational cage studies show drive spread to 96%–97%of the population.However,the drive does not reach 100%due to the formation of functional resistance alleles despite using four gRNAs.These alleles have a large deletion but likely utilize an alternate start codon.Thus,revised designs targeting more essential regions of a gene may be necessary to avoid such functional resistance.Replacement of the rescue element’s native 3'UTR with a homolog from another species increases drive inheritance by 13%–24%.This was possibly because of reduced homology between the rescue element and surrounding genomic DNA,which could also be an important design consideration for rescue gene drives.

A natural allele of Bsr-d1 in rice confers broad-spectrum blast resistance

Subject Code:C14With support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China,a collaborative research group led by Prof.Chen Xuewei(陈学伟)of the Rice Research Institute,Sichuan Agricultural University,published an article entitled“A natural allele of a transcription factor in rice confers broad-spectrum