Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa L.), a model plant belonging to the family Poaceae, is a staple food for a majority of the people worldwide. Grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, this important cereal crop is under constant and serious threat from both biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the biotic threats, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, causing the damaging bacterial blight disease in rice, is a prominent pathogen. The xa5 gene in the host plant rice confers race-specific resistance to this pathogen. This recessive gene belongs to the Xa gene family of rice and encodes a gamma subunit of transcription factor IIA (TFIIAγ). In view of the importance of this gene in conferring resistance to the devastating disease, we reconstructed the phylogenetic relationship of this gene, developed a three-dimensional protein model, followed by long-term molecular dynamics simulation studies to gain a better understanding of the evolution, structure, and function of xa5. The modeled structure was found to fit well with the small subunit of TFIIA from human, suggesting that it may also act as a small subunit of TFIIA in rice. The model had a stable conformation in response to the atomic flexibility and interaction, when subjected to MD simulation at 20 nano second in aqueous solution. Further structural analysis of xa5 indicated that the protein retained its basic transcription factor function, suggesting that it might govern a novel pathway responsible for bacterial blight resistance. Future molecular docking studies of xa5 underway with its corresponding avirulence gene is expected to shed more direct light into plant-pathogen interactions at the molecular level and thus pave the way for richer agriproteomic insights.