PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Philippa Borrill
AU  - Rohit Mago
AU  - Tianyuan Xu
AU  - Brett Ford
AU  - Simon J Williams
AU  - Adinda Derkx
AU  - William D Bovill
AU  - Jessica Hyles
AU  - Dhara Bhatt
AU  - Xiaodi Xia
AU  - Colleen MacMillan
AU  - Rosemary White
AU  - Wolfram Buss
AU  - István Molnár
AU  - Sean Walkowiak
AU  - Odd-Arne Olsen
AU  - Jaroslav Doležel
AU  - Curtis J Pozniak
AU  - Wolfgang Spielmeyer
TI  - An autoactive <em>NB-LRR</em> gene causes <em>Rht13</em> dwarfism in wheat
AID  - 10.1101/2022.05.28.493833
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.05.28.493833
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/05/29/2022.05.28.493833.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/05/29/2022.05.28.493833.full
AB  - Semidwarfing genes have greatly increased wheat yields globally, yet the widely used gibberellin (GA) insensitive genes Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b have disadvantages for seedling emergence. Use of the GA sensitive semidwarfing gene Rht13 avoids this pleiotropic effect. Here we show that Rht13 encodes a nucleotide-binding site/leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) gene. A point mutation in the semidwarf Rht-B13b allele autoactivates the NB-LRR gene and causes a height reduction comparable to Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b in diverse genetic backgrounds. The autoactive Rht-B13b allele leads to transcriptional upregulation of pathogenesis-related genes including class III peroxidases associated with cell wall remodelling. Rht13 represents a new class of reduced height (Rht) gene, unlike other Rht genes which encode components of the GA signalling or metabolic pathways. This discovery opens new avenues to use autoactive NB-LRR genes as semidwarfing genes in a range of crop species, and to apply Rht13 in wheat breeding programmes using a perfect genetic marker.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.