ARS | Publication request: Signaling in the Rhizoctonia solani-rice pathosystem

Submitted to: Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: August 15, 2008
Publication Date: August 20, 2008
Citation: Jia, Y. 2008. Signaling in the Rhizoctonia solani-rice pathosystem. Symposium Proceedings. p. 14.

Technical Abstract: Rhizoctonia solani is a necrotrophic soil borne fungal pathogen known to be a serious crop killer worldwide. A better understanding of the molecular signaling will benefit the development of effective methods to control the pathogen. To dissect molecular signaling between rice and R. solani a combination of genetic, molecular and biochemical approaches were employed at the United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center. A total of 400 induced genes was identified from rice leaves 16 hrs after inoculation using DNA microarray technology. Transcriptions of rice genes for amino acid biosyntheses, production of antimicrobial proteins, signal transduction and host defense responses were found to be activated as early as 16 hr after pathogen inoculation. Transcripts of some activated genes were found to accumulate three days after inoculation. Some of these induced genes were previously reported in other host-pathogen systems suggesting they are common responsive genes involved in diverse host-pathogen interactions. However, induced rice genes specific to rice-R. solani interaction were also identified using RT-PCR and real time PCR, and are being mapped at known quantitative resistance loci. Progress on determining the functional roles of these induced genes will be presented.