TY - JOUR AU - Li, Xu-Pu AU - Ma, Xiao-Chun AU - Wang, He AU - Zhu, Yong AU - Liu, Xin-Xian AU - Li, Ting-Ting AU - Zheng, Ya-Ping AU - Zhao, Ji-Qun AU - Zhang, Ji-Wei AU - Huang, Yan-Yan AU - Pu, Mei AU - Feng, Hui AU - Fan, Jing AU - Li, Yan AU - Wang, Wen-Ming PY - 2020 DA - 2020/06/10 TI - Osa-miR162a fine-tunes rice resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae and Yield JO - Rice SP - 38 VL - 13 IS - 1 AB - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play essential roles in rice immunity against Magnaporthe oryzae, the causative agent of rice blast disease. Here we demonstrate that Osa-miR162a fine-tunes rice immunity against M. oryzae and yield traits. Overexpression of Osa-miR162a enhances rice resistance to M. oryzae accompanying enhanced induction of defense-related genes and accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). In contrast, blocking Osa-miR162 by overexpressing a target mimic of Osa-miR162a enhances susceptibility to blast fungus associating with compromised induction of defense-related gene expression and H2O2 accumulation. Moreover, the transgenic lines overexpressing Osa-miR162a display decreased seed setting rate resulting in slight reduced yield per plant, whereas the transgenic lines blocking Osa-miR162 show an increased number of grains per panicle, resulting in increased yield per plant. Altered accumulation of Osa-miR162 had a limited impact on the expression of rice Dicer-like 1 (OsDCL1) in these transgenic lines showing normal gross morphology, and silencing of OsDCL1 led to enhanced resistance to blast fungus similar to that caused by overexpression of Osa-miR162a, suggesting the involvement of OsDCL1 in Osa-miR162a-regulated resistance. Together, our results indicate that Osa-miR162a is involved in rice immunity against M. oryzae and fine-tunes resistance and yield. SN - 1939-8433 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12284-020-00396-2 DO - 10.1186/s12284-020-00396-2 ID - Li2020 ER -