Natural variation of <i>CTS1</i> confers cold tolerance and blast resistance in rice.

Ye, Wei; Ma, Wendong; Li, Yingxiu; Guo, Zhenhua; Gao, Shilei; Guo, Haifeng; Yan, Zezhong; Shi, Sijing et al. · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2026

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Improving multistress resilience in crops is essential for sustainable agriculture, yet the genetic mechanisms coordinating abiotic and biotic stress responses remain poorly understood. This study identifies <i>CTS1</i> (<i>Cold Tolerance at the Seedling stage1</i>), encoding the transcription factor OsWRKY74, as a key pleiotropic regulator that mediates both cold tolerance and blast resistance in rice. Through genome-wide association study, we found that <i>CTS1</i> negatively regulates cold tolerance at the seedling stage. The natural allele <i>CTS1<sup>Hap1</sup></i> confers greater cold tolerance than <i>CTS1<sup>Hap2</sup></i> by mildly repressing the expression of <i>CTB2</i>, thereby maintaining sterol glycoside homeostasis and membrane stability. Furthermore, during <i>Magnaporthe oryzae</i> infection, CTS1 activates the expression of <i>OsHSP90</i> and upregulates pathogenesis-related genes, thereby enhancing blast resistance. Our findings reveal a dual-function mechanism of <i>CTS1</i> in stress adaptation and provide valuable alleles for breeding multistress resilient rice varieties.

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