TaELP2 Interacts With TaDCL1 and Negatively Regulates Wheat Resistance Against Stripe Rust

Wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) is an important staple food crop worldwide, playing a fundamental role in global food security. Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is a highly destructive disease affecting this crop. The Elongator complex is known to be a key regulator of plant responses to stress; however, little is known about the function of its subunit 2, encoded by the TaELP2 gene, in the wheat–Pst interaction. In this study, we investigated the role of TaELP2 in the susceptibility of wheat to Pst. We found that the transient silencing of TaELP2 using a virus‐induced gene silencing (VIGS) system markedly increased wheat resistance to the pathogen, whereas its overexpression exerted the opposite effect. Subsequently, yeast two‐hybrid (Y2H), luciferase complementation imaging (LCI), pull‐down and co‐immunoprecipitation (Co‐IP) assays demonstrated that TaELP2 directly interacts with DICER‐LIKE (DCL1) protein. Notably, the knockdown of TaDCL1 expression greatly enhanced wheat resistance to stripe rust. Furthermore, Y2H and LCI assays indicated that TaELP2 also interacts with TaELP3. RNA‐sequencing analysis revealed that TaELP2 overexpression downregulates NB‐ARC genes and compromises disease resistance in wheat. Based on these findings, we propose that TaELP2 acts as a negative regulator of wheat stripe rust resistance, probably by interacting with TaDCL1 to modulate the transcription of key disease resistance genes.