Scientists put the human antimicrobial peptide LL‑37 into rice plants and found that the modified rice was much more resistant to two common rice diseases. They confirmed the peptide was made and located in the spaces between cells, and the plants stayed healthy compared to normal rice.

Human LL-37 is a multifunctional antimicrobial peptide of cathelicidin family. It has been shown in recent studies that it can serve as a host's defense against influenza A virus. We now demonstrate in this study how signal peptide LL-37 (SP-LL-37) can be used in rice resistance against bacterial leaf blight and blast. We synthesized LL-37 peptide and subcloned in a recombinant pPZP vector with pGD1 as promoter. SP-LL-37 was introduced into rice plants by Agrobacterium mediated transformation. Stable expression of SP-LL-37 in transgenic rice plants was confirmed by RT-PCR and ELISA analyses. Subcellular localization of SP-LL-37-GFP fusion protein showed evidently in intercellular space. Our data on testing for resistance to bacterial leaf blight and blast revealed that the transgenic lines are highly resistant compared to its wildtype. Our results suggest that LL-37 can be further explored to improve wide-spectrum resistance to biotic stress in rice.