Production of cecropin A in transgenic rice plants has an impact on host gene expression.
Summary Expression of the cecropin A gene in rice confers resistance to the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. In this study, a polymerase chain reaction-based suppression subtractive hybridization approach was used to generate a cDNA macroarray from the elite japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar ‘Senia’. Gene expression studies revealed that the expression of components of the protein secretory and vesicular transport machinery is co-ordinately activated at the pre-invasive stage of infection of rice by the blast fungus. Comparisons of gene expression between wild-type and cecropin A plants revealed the over-expression of genes involved in protection against oxidative stress in tran…
The arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis promotes the systemic induction of regulatory defence-related genes in rice leaves and confers resistance to pathogen infection
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbioses are mutualistic associations between soil fungi and most vascular plants. Their association benefits the host plant by improving nutrition, mainly phosphorus nutrition, and by providing increased capability to cope with adverse conditions. In this study, we investigated the transcriptional changes triggered in rice leaves as a result of AM symbiosis, focusing on the relevance of the plant defence response. We showed that root colonization by the AM fungus Glomus intraradices is accompanied by the systemic induction of genes that play a regulatory role in the host defence response, such as OsNPR1, OsAP2, OsEREBP and OsJAmyb. Genes involved in signal tran…