Rice experts from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
(NARO) in Japan and partners found a rice gene that confers broad-spectrum
resistance to â-triketone herbicides. Benzobicyclon (BBC), a â-triketone
herbicide, is useful in many rice paddies, however, some rice varieties are
susceptible to BBC. Discovery of the genetic cause of this susceptibility
will help breeders develop BBC-resistant crops. The results of the study are
published in Science.



NARO scientist, Hideo Maeda, and colleagues pinpoint the rice gene HPPD
INHIBITOR SENSITIVE 1 (HIS1), which confers resistance to BBC and other
herbicides of its kind. The researchers found that HIS1 encodes a specific
enzyme that detoxifies the herbicides by speeding up its degradation.
Further analysis revealed that BBC-susceptible rice inherited a
dysfunctional his1 from indica rice. When HIS1 was expressed in Arabidopsis,
the resulting plants showed resistance not just to BBC but to four other
â-triketone herbicides.

Based on the findings, HIS1 could be used to develop herbicide resistant
crops.



[science.sciencemag.org]