Editing of the rice importin gene IMPα1b results in sequestration of TAL effectors from plant cell nuclei

Abstract Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) produced by plant pathogenic bacteria mainly belonging to the genus Xanthomonas cause diseases through activation of host susceptibility genes in cell nuclei. How TALEs enter nuclei was not clear until recent studies about PthXo1 and TALI, two oryzae pv. ( Xoo ) X. oryzicola Xoc ), rice Oryza sativa pathogens that bacterial blight leaf streak, respectively. Here, we report importin IMPα1b serves as a nuclear transport receptor plants facilitate import TALI from , While wild-type (WT) support trafficking is defective OsIMPα1b loss-of-function mutants generated clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)–CRISPR-associated 9 (Cas9)-based gene editing. In edited infected sequesters nucleus, PthXo1-targeted no longer activated, virulence disease are alleviated result. role suppressing defense responses nullified, turn activated inhibit alleviate streak severity.