TAL effector-dependent Bax gene expression in transgenic rice confers disease resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae.

The hypersensitive response (HR) is a form of programmed cell death of plant cells occurring in the local region surrounding pathogen infection site to prevent the spread of infection by pathogens. Bax, a mammalian pro-apoptotic member of Bcl-2 family, triggers HR-like cell death when expressed in plants. However, constitutive expression of the Bax gene negatively affects plant growth and development.

Inactivation of retrotransposon in rice cultivar Nipponbare through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing.

Retrotransposons are mobile genetic elements capable of transposition via reverse transcription of RNA intermediates. Rice cultivar Nipponbare contains two nearly identical genomic copies of , an endogenous -like LTR retrotransposon, on chromosomes 7 ( ) and 10 ( ), respectively. Previous studies demonstrated that only is active in transposition during tissue culture.