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Zinc Uptake Regulator (zur) Gene Involved in Zinc Homeostasis and Virulence of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae in Rice

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Abstract

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae causes bacterial leaf blight, one of the most widespread and destructive bacterial diseases in rice. In order to understand the gene of zinc uptake regulator (zur) involved in virulence of the pathogen in rice, we generated a mutant OSZRM by homologous suicide plasmid integration. The mutant failed to grow in NYGB medium supplemented with Zn2+ or Fe3+ at a concentration of 500 μM or 6 mM, whereas the wild-type strain grew well at the same conditions. The zur mutant was hypersensitive to hydrogen peroxide and exhibited reduction catalase activity and the production of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS). Interestingly, the mutant showed a reduction in virulence on rice but still kept triggering hypersensitive response (HR) in tobacco. When the mutant was complemented with the zur gene, the response was recovered to wild-type. These results suggested that zur gene is a functional member of the Zur regulator family that controls zinc and iron homeostasis, oxidative stress, and EPS production, which is necessary for virulence in X. oryzae pv. oryzae.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Prof. Gongyou Chen for critically reading the manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30070497) and the National 863 Project of China (2002AA245041).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Republic of China

    Wanfeng Yang, Yan Liu, Lei Chen, Baishi Hu & Fengquan Liu

  2. Institute of Plant Protection, Anhui Academy Agricultural Sciences, Hefei, 230031, Republic of China

    Wanfeng Yang, Tongchun Gao & Dongfang Zhang

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  1. Wanfeng Yang
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Correspondence to Fengquan Liu.

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Wanfeng Yang and Yan Liu contributed equally to this work

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Yang, W., Liu, Y., Chen, L. et al. Zinc Uptake Regulator (zur) Gene Involved in Zinc Homeostasis and Virulence of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae in Rice. Curr Microbiol 54, 307–314 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-006-0485-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-006-0485-8

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