A cell wall-localized NLR confers resistance to Soybean mosaic virus by recognizing viral-encoded cylindrical inclusion protein.

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) causes severe yield losses and seed quality reduction in soybean (Glycine max) production worldwide. Rsc4 from cultivar Dabaima is a dominant genetic locus for SMV resistance, and its mapping interval contains three nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat-containing (NLR) candidates (Rsc4-1, Rsc4-2, and Rsc4-3). The NLR-type resistant proteins were considered as important intracellular pathogen sensors in the previous studies. In this study, based on transient expression assay in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, we found that the longest transcript of Rsc4-3 is sufficient to confer resistance to SMV, and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing of Rsc4-3 in resistant cultivar Dabaima compromised the resistance. Interestingly, Rsc4-3 encodes a cell-wall-localized NLR-type resistant protein. We found that the internal polypeptide region responsible for apoplastic targeting of Rsc4-3 and the putative palmitoylation sites on the N terminus are essential for the resistance. Furthermore, we showed that viral-encoded cylindrical inclusion (CI) protein partially localizes to the cell wall and can interact with Rsc4-3. Virus-driven or transient expression of CI protein of avirulent SMV strains is enough to induce resistance response in the presence of Rsc4-3, suggesting that CI is the avirulent gene for Rsc4-3-mediated resistance. Taken together, our work identified a unique NLR that recognizes plant virus in the apoplast, and provided a simple and effective method for identifying resistant genes against SMV infection.