Abstract
The powdery mildew is an obligate biotrophic fungus that infects various crops and vegetables, thus causing economical damages. Powdery mildew infection is highly race-specific, and its infection and growth are limited to the plant surface. Plant defense response against pathogens is known to be multidimensional. Pathogens have to overcome (1) physical defense by cell wall, (2) defense induced by pathogen itself at entering, and (3) defense caused by pathogen and plant protein interaction to successfully establish infection. Recent research has mostly focused on the defense response at powdery mildew entering, and much of defense mechanism remains to be unknown. To obtain a clear view of how Arabidopsis responds against powdery mildew Golovinomyces orontii, we have performed detailed morphological analyses on early infection process. We found that powdery mildew has a tissue preference, and that the accumulation of wax crystal was one of factors affecting the preference.
