ARS | Publication request: Characterization of interacting genes with the rice blast fungus avirulence gene AVR-Pita

Submitted to: American Phytopathological Society Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: January 15, 2010
Publication Date: February 7, 2010
Citation: Xing, J., Lee, S., Jia, Y., Yuan, L. 2010. Characterization of interacting genes with the rice blast fungus avirulence gene AVR-Pita. American Phytopathological Society Annual Meeting, Feb. 7-8, 2010, Orlando, FL. CDROM

Technical Abstract: The AVR-Pita gene in Magnaporthe oryzae determines the efficacy of the Pi-ta blast resistance gene. AVR-Pita encodes a predicted metalloprotease with 223 amino acids. AVR-Pita176 with deletion of 57 amino acids at the amino terminus was previously shown to be involved in Pi-ta mediated blast resistance as a putative effector protein. In order to study the role of AVR-Pita in fungal pathogenicity and blast resistance, AVR-Pita176 was used as bait to identify interacting genes from a yeast two-hybrid library constructed using mRNAs isolated from a U.S. tropical japonica cultivar Katy leaves at different time points after inoculation with M. oryzae. Identified AVR-Pita interacting proteins will be verified using in Vitro binding techniques. In addition, three predicted proteins, AVR-Pita223, AVR-Pita176, and AVR-Pita166 will be used to examine interaction specificity in the yeast two-hybrid assays. The roles of AVR-Pita interacting proteins in fungal pathogenicity and blast resistance will be investigated and progress will be presented.