Isolation and characterization of novel defense response genes involved in compatible and incompatible interactions between rice and Magnaporthe grisea.

To identify early-induced defense genes involved in broad-spectrum resistance to rice blast, suppression subtractive hybridization was used to generate two cDNA libraries enriched for transcripts differentially expressed in Pi9(t)-resistant and -susceptible plants. After differential screening by membrane-based hybridization and subsequent confirmation by reverse Northern blot analysis, selected clones were sequenced and analyzed. Forty-seven unique cDNA clones were found and assigned to eight different groups according to the putative function of their homologous genes in the database. These genes may be involved in pathogen or stress response, signal transduction, transcription, cell transport, metabolism, energy or protein destination. Northern blot analysis showed that most of these genes were induced or suppressed after blast infection, and that half of them showed differential expression patterns between compatible and incompatible interactions. Interestingly, all but one of the identified genes are reported here for the first time to be involved in defense response to rice blast. In addition, hybridization of these clones with cDNAs synthesized from RNA samples from bacterial blight-infected leaves showed that few of them are induced or repressed in Xa21- or Xa7-resistant plants, suggesting a minimum overlap of defense responses mediated by different resistance genes to fungal and bacterial pathogens at an early stage of infection. Further characterization and functional analysis of these genes will enhance our understanding of the molecular mechanism of broad-spectrum resistance in rice.