| Summary: | <i>DWARF17</i> (<i>D17</i>/<i>HTD1</i>) is a well-defined rice strigolactone (SL) biosynthesis gene that influences rice tiller development and the production of rice. To investigate whether SLs play a role in the regulation of rice’s defense against the white-backed planthopper (WBPH, <i>Sogatella furcifera</i>), we compared a SL-biosynthetic defective mutant (<i>d17</i>) with WT rice plants. Our olfactory bioassay results revealed that WBPHs are attracted to <i>d17</i> plants, which may be attributed to changes in rice volatile substances. Hexanal, a volatile substance, was significantly reduced in the <i>d17</i> plants, and it was demonstrated that it repelled WBPHs at a concentration of 100 μL/L. Compared to the WT plants, WBPH female adults preferred to oviposit on <i>d17</i> plants, where the egg hatching rate was higher. The transcript level analysis of defense-associated genes in the JA and SA pathways showed that the expression of <i>OsJAmyb, OsJAZ8</i>, <i>OsPR1a</i> and <i>OsWRKY62</i> were significantly reduced in <i>d17</i> plants compared to WT plants following WBPH infection. These findings suggest that silencing the strigolactone biosynthesis gene <i>D17</i> weakens defenses against <i>S. furcifera</i> in rice.
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