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

A wild rice gene OsRLK is linked to Acinetobacter and enhances nitrogen-use efficiency in rice.

• Why it matters: Crop domestication has led to the loss of beneficial root microbiota that improve nitrogen uptake, creating a gap in understanding how to restore these interactions through breeding.
• What they did: Researchers used two recombinant inbred line populations from cultivated rice and wild rice, combined microbiome profiling, QTL mapping, population genomics, and transgenic validation to identify 113 candidate genes, focusing on OsRLK.
• The result: Overexpression of OsRLK increased yield-related traits in field trials, demonstrating its potential for microbiome-guided breeding to improve nutrient efficiency in crops.