Wild rice locus enables microbiome re-domestication for enhanced nitrogen-use efficiency.

Wild rice gene OsRLK, mainly found in Oryza rufipogon, enhances nitrogen-use efficiency by promoting beneficial Acinetobacter microbiota, boosting crop yield.

• Why it matters: Improving nitrogen-use efficiency is crucial for sustainable agriculture, but the genetic basis for microbiome inheritance from wild to cultivated rice remains unclear, limiting breeding strategies.
• What they did: Researchers used two recombinant inbred line populations from cultivated rice and wild rice, combining microbiome profiling, QTL mapping, genomics, and transgenic validation to identify 113 candidate genes, focusing on OsRLK.
• The result: Manipulating OsRLK altered nitrogen uptake and yield traits, demonstrating its role in microbiome re-domestication, and providing a genetic target for breeding nutrient-efficient rice varieties.