Rice 9000 cDNA Microarray Analysis of Genes Expressed in Early Stage after Inoculation with Rice Blast Fungus

Abstract

Using the rice 9000 cDNA microarray, gene expression profile of rice leaves in early stage after rice blast fungus infection was analyzed. We used the 4th leaves of the susceptible rice cultivar (Nipponbare), resistant cultivar (IL7, which is the isogenic line containing the resistance gene Pi-i), and Nipponbare pretreated with ACC, which is a possible molecule for induced resistance. The result showed expression of about 500 clones was up- and down-regulated in infected Nipponbare. In these, many putative clones involved in metabolism, stress response and signal transduction were found. From the results, we were interested in sugar metabolism after the infection, and determined the levels of sugars and starch, indicating the amount of sucrose was considerably decreased in the rice leaves during resistance response.