A pathogen lncRNA secreted into rice sequesters a host miRNA for virulence

  • Nature. 2026 Jul;655(8122):468-477. doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10572-x.
Min He  #  1 ,  Jia Su  #  2 ,  Xiaogang Zhou  #  3 ,  Tuo Qi  #  2  4 ,  Jiazheng Wang  #  2 ,  Tianxin Zhang  #  2 ,  Jinhua Chen  #  2 ,  Mawsheng Chern  5 ,  Youpin Xu  2 ,  Xiang Lu  2 ,  Qingqing Hou  2 ,  Hongrui Liu  2 ,  Wenfang Huang  2 ,  Jiawei Liu  2 ,  Shiying Li  3 ,  Yunfei Zhu  3 ,  Xue Chen  3 ,  Senyu Ran  2 ,  Han Li  2 ,  Renju Liu  2 ,  Mingliang Lei  2 ,  Guosong Shu  2 ,  Haicheng Liao  2 ,  Junjie Yin  2 ,  Xiaobo Zhu  2 ,  Yongyan Tang  2 ,  Li Song  2 ,  Long Wang  2 ,  Qing Xiong  2 ,  Jiali Liu  2 ,  Yu Bi  2 ,  Yihua Yang  2 ,  Hai Qing  2 ,  Bingtian Ma  2 ,  Yan Li  2 ,  Jing Fan  2 ,  Peng Qin  2 ,  Yuping Wang  2 ,  Jianming Wu  3 ,  Wenming Wang  2 ,  Shigui Li  2 ,  Weitao Li  2 ,  Jing Wang  2 ,  Xuewei Chen  6
Affiliations
  • 1. New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Rice Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China. [email protected].
  • 2. New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Rice Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
  • 3. Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Medical Electrophysiology, Sichuan Key Medical Laboratory of New Drug Discovery and Druggability Evaluation, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China.
  • 4. Forest Ecology and Conservation in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Mianyang Teachers' College, Mianyang, China.
  • 5. Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
  • 6. New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Rice Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China. [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 42162425 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10572-x
Abstract

Plants and Animals respond to pathogens through pattern recognition receptor and NOD-like Receptor proteins1. Pathogens commonly use protein effectors to suppress host immunity for successful Infection2. However, the existence of non-protein effector classes remains comparatively understudied. Here we report an RNA-RNA recognition mechanism governing pathogen-host interaction, mediated by a regulatory RNA-encoding DNA sequence that separately generates two complementary regulatory RNAs. Specifically, a long non-coding RNA transcribed from this DNA region in the Fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae translocates into host rice cells and sequesters a complementary MicroRNA (miRNA), derived from a distinct host DNA region, thereby subverting host immunity. In turn, this rice-derived miRNA promotes disease resistance by repressing the expression of PKR1, a gene that encodes a negative regulator of host immunity. Sequestration of the host miRNA by the Fungal long non-coding RNA releases PKR1 expression to facilitate Fungal Infection. We discovered that this regulatory RNA-encoding DNA sequence is probably widely present across diverse life species, mediating interactions between pathogens and their plant hosts. Collectively, our findings provide an approach for effective disease control using miRNAs derived from this important DNA region.

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