ZmHPATR1 orchestrates phyllosphere organic acid flux to recruit Sphingomonas and enhance resistance of maize to Curvularia leaf s
Xinhao Luo, Hanchen Shan, Boyan Wang, Lulu Qi, Mingbi Ding, Yongxia Qi, Jing Zhou, Jun Fan, Guomin Han, Beijiu Cheng, Jin Chen, Xiaoyu LiSummary
Leaf spots caused by
Curvularia lunata
infection pose a significant threat to global maize production. Although resistance gene breeding faces challenges due to pathogen evolution, the plant microbiome has emerged as a key modulator of disease resistance. However, the mechanisms via which plant genes regulate phyllosphere metabolites to recruit beneficial microbes remain poorly understood.
Here, we combined gene mapping, metabolomics, microbiome analyses, cytological analysis, and
in vitro
and
in vivo
experiments to investigate the disease resistance mechanism of
ZmHPATR1
.
We first identified that the loss‐of‐function mutation in
ZmHPATR1
significantly increased the levels of fumaric acid, folic acid, and tetrahydrofolic acid in the leaves, leading to the enrichment of the genus
Sphingomonas
. We further demonstrated that the extracellular polysaccharide, welan gum, biosynthesized by
Sphingomonas
, effectively inhibited
C. lunata
growth and disrupted its cell structure.
These results enable us to comprehensively understand the complicated mechanisms of plant resistance to disease through a four‐level regulatory network that links plant genes, metabolites, microbes, and pathogens. Our findings provide new strategies for targeted microbiome‐based disease‐resistant breeding and the development of novel biopesticides for maize.