Rice Science

Rice Science

• Research Paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Identification and Characterization of WAKg Genes Involved in Rice Disease Resistance and Yield

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Key Laboratory for Research and Utilization of Heterosis in Indica Rice of Ministry of Agriculture, Engineering Research Center for Plant Biotechnology and Germplasm Utilization of Ministry of Education, College of Life Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China; Applied Biotechnology Center, Wuhan University of Bioengineering, Wuhan 430415, China; Hongshan Laboratory, Hubei Province, Wuhan 430072, China; #These authors contributed equally to this work
  • Contact: FAN Fengfeng; LI Shaoqing
  • Supported by:

    This study was partly granted from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 32470391 and 32401801), the Joint Open Competitive Project of the Yazhou Bay Laboratory and the China National Seed Company Limited (Grant No. B23YQ1515), the International Cooperation Projects in Hubei Province, China (Grant No. 2023EHA045), and the Natural Science Foundation of Wuhan University of Bioengineering, China (Grant No. 2024KQ07).

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Abstract:

The wall-associated kinases (WAKs) play a crucial role in rice resistance, but their relationship to yield-related traits remains poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed the rice wall-associated kinase galacturonan-binding (WAKg) gene family and evaluated its association with both disease resistance and grain yield. A total of 108 OsWAKg genes were identified in rice. Promoter cis-element analysis revealed that the promoter regions of OsWAKg genes contain abundant resistance- and hormone-related elements. Induced expression analysis of 18 OsWAKg genes highly expressed in both rice leaves and roots showed that 14 genes were pathogen-induced, 9 were induced by development-related hormones, and 8 responded to both stimuli. Transgenic validation confirmed that OsWAKg16 and OsWAKg52 positively regulate rice disease resistance and yield. Moreover, OsWAKg52 regulates rice disease resistance through multiple pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) responses. These findings demonstrate that OsWAKgs significantly contribute to the coordinated regulation of disease resistance and grain yield, providing both new insights into rice WAK gene family studies and potential genetic resources for synergistic crop improvement.

Key words: WAKg gene family, disease resistance, pattern-triggered immunity response, grain yield