P-417 - Investigating the function and conservation of nuclear pore complex components in rice arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is an ancient and incredibly widespread plant-fungal mutualism, and a promising target for sustainable crop improvement. Its establishment and maintenance requires a molecular dialogue between the plant and fungus, as well as numerous signalling processes in both partners, many of which are not fully understood. Three components of the nuclear pore complex, nucleoporins NUP85, NUP133 and NENA, play an unknown, symbiosis-specific role in the model legume Lotus japonicus, with the mutants showing severe, temperature-sensitive defects in AM colonisation. We aim to determine whether the symbiotic role of these nucleoporin genes is conserved in rice, a key cereal crop and a model for the study of AM symbiosis, as well as unpick their specific molecular role in AM signalling. We have generated CRISPR/Cas9 mutant lines for all three rice orthologues of these genes, and confirmed that their AM colonisation phenotypes are highly consistent with Lotus, exhibiting a drastic reduction in colonisation levels and similar fungal morphology, confirming that their symbiotic role is conserved between the two species. Work is now underway to determine the degree of temperature-sensitivity these mutants exhibit in rice. We have additionally established, and are characterising, the genetic material needed to investigate the nup85/nup133 double mutant phenotype, as well as the interplay between these NUPs and other key rice symbiotic signalling pathways.