Abstract
CEBiP was identified as a receptor for chitin elicitor (CE) and contributes to basal resistance against fungal disease in rice. Since the resistance induced by CE is not strong enough to prevent the disease, we tried to manipulate the response to CE to enhance the fungal disease resistance. A chimeric receptor, CRXA, was designed, which consists of CEBiP and the intercellular kinase region of XA21, a rice R gene product against rice bacterial blight. Transgenic rice callus expressing the CRXa a caused HR-like response after treatment with CE. The HR-like response was lost when the kinase activity of CRXA was deficient, indicating that the CE signal was converted to the XA21-dependent HR signal. Transgenic rice plants expressing the CRXa showed the enhanced resistance against rice blast disease, but resistance against rice bacterial blight, which contains no chitin, and against rice brown spot, a necrotrophic fungus, were not changed.
