ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1653282
Overexpression of TaPSKR1L-6A improves resistance to sharp eyespot and increases lignin accumulation in wheat
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Changchun, China
- 2National Nanfan Research Institute of CAAS, Sanya, China
- 3Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute of Crop Sciences, Beijing, China
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The soil-borne fungi Rhizoctonia cerealis is one of the major pathogens for the economically-important diseases sharp eyespot of common wheat (Triticum aestivum). Certain phytosulfokine receptor 1 (PSKR1) genes mediate resistance to diseases caused by biotrophic/hemibiotrophic pathogens in several plant species. Yet, none of wheat PSKR1 genes with positive effect on the innate immune responses to R. cerealis has been reported. Here, we characterize the phytosulfokine receptor 1-like gene TaPSKR1L-6A on wheat chromosome 6A, and determined functional role of TaPSKR1L-6A in wheat defense against R. cerealis. TaPSKR1L-6A transcript induction by R. cerealis infection was higher in sharp eyespot-resistant wheat cultivars compared to susceptible wheat cultivars. Overexpression of TaPSKR1L-6A significantly enhanced resistance to sharp eyespot, promoted lignin synthesis/accumulation and elevated the expression of a subset of lignin synthesis genes, while silencing of TaPSKR1L-6A had the opposite effects. Collectively, these results clearly suggest that TaPSKR1L-6A mediates resistance to sharp eyespot by activating the expression of several lignin synthesis-related genes and increasing lignin accumulation. Thus, TaPSKR1L-6A is a promising gene for improving wheat resistance against sharp eyespot. This study sheds light on wheat defense mechanisms against R. cerealis.
Keywords: Common wheat (Triticum aestivum), Lignin synthesis, phytosulfokine receptor 1-like, Resistance, Sharp eyespot
Received: 24 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qi, Qi and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Haijun Qi, haijunqi@yeah.net
Haijun Qi, haijunqi@yeah.net
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