Agrobacterium-mediated transformation efficiency is altered in a novel rice bacterial blight resistance cultivar and is influenced by environmental temperature

Y73 is a progeny of asymmetric somatic hybridization from an elite japonica rice cultivar (Dalixiang) and a wild rice (Oryza meyeriana), which shows high resistance to bacterial blight. It has a similar genetic background to its recurrent parent, Dalixiang, but Y73 has a high resistance to both bacterial blight and Agrobacterium. The transformation efficiency of Y73 was 35.7%, while Dalixiang had higher transformation efficiency (71.2%) under the same co-cultivation temperature (25 °C). These results indicate that the resistance to Agrobacterium tumefaciens in Y73 was linked with its characteristic of bacterial blight resistance, and was obtained from its donor parent, O. meyeriana. Further studies also showed that the resistance to A. tumefaciens was weakened at a lower temperature (20 °C). To study its molecular mechanism, the expression levels of genes associated with Agrobacterium-mediated transformation (OsMPKs, OsVIP1s and OsPR1s) in rice were investigated by Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis. The expression levels of OsMPK genes remained unchanged at different temperatures, while all OsVIP1s and almost all OsPR1s were up-regulated and transformation efficiency of Y73 was increased notably when infected by Agrobacterium at 20 °C compared with 25 °C. This study suggests that the bacterial blight resistance genes in Y73 also have an effect on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and that the response to temperature is associated with the regulation of MAPK/VIP1 defense signaling pathway.