Loss of Function of a Proline-Containing Protein Confers Durable Disease Resistance in Rice

Blast-Resistant Rice The durability of disease resistance for an agricultural crop reflects the extent to which the defense stands up to evolutionary dodges on the part of the pathogen. Pi21 , which is a quantitative trait locus (QTL) of rice, contributes to a particularly durable resistance to a fungal rice blast disease: Rice plants carrying the resistant allele have been in cultivation for more than a century, and yet the pathogen has been unable to find a way through the defense. Fukuoka et al. (p. 998 ; see the news story by Normile ) have now cloned the responsible Pi21 QTL allele and were able to separate Pi21 resistance from tightly linked reductions in grain quality, paving the way for more widespread use of this allele in rice breeding.