Nature rubber from rubber tree is one of the most important raw materials for industry. However, rubber trees have been seriously affected by fungal diseases, resulting in large yield loss of nature rubber. Therefore, it is important to identify the disease resistance–related genes for genetically engineered breeding of disease resistance in rubber tree. In this study, the homologous gene of Arabidopsis thaliana receptor-like kinase AtBIK1, HbBIK1, was selected from rubber tree. The full length of HbBIK1 gene was 1260 bp of 419 aa with an intracellular kinase motif. HbBIK1 expression was induced by Oidium heveae Steinmann infection, indicating that HbBIK1 might be involved in response to O. heveae Steinmann infection. The expression level of HbBIK1 was also induced by jasmonic acid (JA) treatment, but not by salicylic acid (SA) and ethylene (ET) treatments. In addition, HbBIK1 was specifically localized on plasma membrane of rubber tree mesophyll protoplasts. Transgenic HbBIK1 lines using AtBIK1 native promoter could rescue not only root length but also disease sensitivity to Alternaria brassicicola in A. thaliana bik1 mutant, indicating the functional similarity between AtBIK1 and HbBIK1. These results showed that HbBIK1 might involve in plant disease resistance and could be used as a candidate disease-related gene for defense genetic breeding in rubber tree.

橡胶树生产的天然橡胶是工业上最重要的原材料之一。然而，橡胶树已受到真菌疾病的严重影响，导致天然橡胶的大量产量损失。因此，重要的是确定与抗病性有关的基因，以便对橡胶树的抗病性进行基因工程育种。在这项研究中，拟南芥受体样激酶AtBIK1，HbBIK1的同源基因选自橡胶树。HbBIK1基因的全长为419个氨基酸的1260 bp，具有细胞内激酶基序。HbBIK1的表达是由油菜油菜Steinmann感染诱导的，表明HbBIK1可能参与了对O. heveae Steinmann感染的反应。茉莉酸（JA）处理也诱导了HbBIK1的表达水平，但水杨酸（SA）和乙烯（ET）处理却没有诱导。此外，HbBIK1专门定位在橡胶树叶肉原生质体的质膜上。转基因HbBIK1使用线AtBIK1天然启动子可以挽救不仅根长，而且疾病敏感性孢甘蓝在拟南芥BIK1突变体，这表明之间的功能相似性AtBIK1和HbBIK1。这些结果表明，HbBIK1 可能与植物抗病性有关，可以用作橡胶树防御基因育种的候选疾病相关基因。