Asymmetric subspecies-selection of an NLR-TF immune module and reconstruction of broad-spectrum disease resistance in rice

Hui Ping Lin; Fudan Chen; Guanyun Cheng; Bingxiao Yan; Meng Yuan; Jie Qiu; Yiduo Lu; Mingzhe Suo; Ying Chen; Yijie Wang; Kaixuan Cui; Xiangyu Gong; Shasha Liu; Bofan Liu; Jiyun Liu; Jianjun Wang; Rongbai Li; Bizeng Mao; J. S. Xu; Jong‐Seong Jeon; Xuehui Huang; Bin Han; Dong‐Lei Yang; Qifei Gao; Haiming Xu; Yiwen Deng; Gongyou Chen; Zuhua He

doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10361-6

GeneticsNatureApr 8, 2026

Peer-reviewed journal article

Asymmetric subspecies-selection of an NLR-TF immune module and reconstruction of broad-spectrum disease resistance in rice

Hui Ping Lin iD, Fudan Chen iD, Guanyun Cheng iD, Bingxiao Yan iD, Meng Yuan iD, Jie Qiu iD, Yiduo Lu iD, Mingzhe Suo iD, Ying Chen iD, Yijie Wang, Kaixuan Cui, Xiangyu Gong, Shasha Liu iD, Bofan Liu, Jiyun Liu iD, Jianjun Wang, Rongbai Li iD, Bizeng Mao iD, J. S. Xu iD, Jong‐Seong Jeon iD, Xuehui Huang iD, Bin Han iD, Dong‐Lei Yang iD, Qifei Gao iD, Haiming Xu iD, , Zuhua He iD

Abstract

Artificial selection has greatly shaped crop agronomic traits; however, the mechanistic basis of immunity selection has remained elusive. This study identifies a new rice NLR XA48 and its downstream transcription factor OsVOZ1, which confer bacterial blight resistance. XA48 perceives an ancient pathogen effector, XopG, to activates effector-triggered immunity (ETI). The XA48-OsVOZ1 module has undergone subspecies-specific selection. Xa48 is retained in indica but functionally lost in japonica rice. OsVOZ1 has also diverged into two haplotypes, indica kept both OsVOZ1A/S alleles that match XA48; while japonica only inherited OsVOZ1A that greatly decreases yield when Xa48 is reintroduced into japonica, mechanistically explaining the Xa48 loss in japonica. We resurrected wild rice broad-spectrum resistance by stacking XA48-mediated ETI with XA21-mediated pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). Thus, our study reveals that the asymmetric selection of an NLR-TF module shapes both disease resistance and reproduction, and provides a paradigm for breeding crops by harnessing the immunity of wild relatives.

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