An atypical class of non-coding small RNAs is produced in rice leaves upon bacterial infection Reshetnyak, G. Jacobs, J. M. /Auguy, Florence Sciallano, C. Claude, L. Medina, C. Perez-Quintero, A. L. /Comte, Aurore Thomas, E. Bogdanove, A. /Koebnik, Ralf /Szurek, Boris Dievart, A. /Brugidou, Christophe /Lacombe, Séverine /Cunnac, Sébastien Non-coding small RNAs (sRNA) act as mediators of gene silencing and regulate plant growth, development and stress responses. Early insights into plant sRNAs established a role in antiviral defense and they are now extensively studied across plant-microbe interactions. Here, sRNA sequencing discovered a class of sRNA in rice (Oryza sativa) specifically associated with foliar diseases caused by Xanthomonas oryzae bacteria. Xanthomonas-induced small RNAs (xisRNAs) loci were distinctively upregulated in response to diverse virulent strains at an early stage of infection producing a single duplex of 20-22 nt sRNAs. xisRNAs production was dependent on the Type III secretion system, a major bacterial virulence factor for host colonization. xisRNA loci overlap with annotated transcripts sequences, with about half of them encoding protein kinase domain proteins. A number of the corresponding rice cis-genes have documented functions in immune signaling and xisRNA loci predominantly coincide with the coding sequence of a conserved kinase motif. xisRNAs exhibit features of small interfering RNAs and their biosynthesis depend on canonical components OsDCL1 and OsHEN1. xisRNA induction possibly mediates post-transcriptional gene silencing but they do not broadly suppress cis-genes expression on the basis of mRNA-seq data. Overall, our results identify a group of unusual sRNAs with a potential role in plant-microbe interactions. 2021 text https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010083857 fdi:010083857 Reshetnyak G., Jacobs J. M., Auguy Florence, Sciallano C., Claude L., Medina C., Perez-Quintero A. L., Comte Aurore, Thomas E., Bogdanove A., Koebnik Ralf, Szurek Boris, Dievart A., Brugidou Christophe, Lacombe Séverine, Cunnac Sébastien. An atypical class of non-coding small RNAs is produced in rice leaves upon bacterial infection. 2021, 11 (1), 24141 [20 ] EN