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Rice blast is one of the most destructive diseases of rice and is caused by the infection with rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. In the present study, we obtained 12 bacterial isolates from Sichuan basin neutral purplish soil. Among them, the strain named ZW-10 showed significant activity against M. oryzae. Morphological and biochemical studies, along with 16S rDNA sequencing analysis, proved that the strain belongs to Bacillus velezensis. The cell-free culture filtrate of ZW-10 inhibited the growth of M. oryzae, suggesting the presence of active enzymes and secondary metabolites. The experimental results showed that ZW-10 produced cellulase, protease, and peroxidase. The temperature experiment indicated that the secondary metabolisms of ZW-10 remained active at high temperature. In addition, this strain had good acidity resistance. As shown in leaf experiments in vitro as well as field trials, the liquid culture and the cell-free culture filtrate of ZW-10 had significant inhibitory effects on rice blast. In conclusion, ZW-10 can be used as a potential biological agent in the control of rice blast.

With the advance of sequencing technology, the number of sequenced plant genomes has been rapidly increasing. However, many plant proteins in public databases are recognised as proteins with domains of unknown function (DUF). DUF872 is such a protein family that consists of plant proteins with unknown function. In this study, we analysed three DUF872 members (OsDUF872.1, OsDUF872.1 and OsDUF872.3) in rice Nipponbare with three distinct motifs. Real-time polymerase chain reaction showed that the expression patterns of the three corresponding OsDUF872 protein-encoding genes varied in 15 different rice tissues. The expression of OsDUF872.2 was significantly (P