Abstract
Green rice leafhopper (GRH), Nephotettix cincticeps is an agricultural pest of rice in the temperate zone including Japan. This insect causes not only sacking damages to rice but also transmitting phytoplasma disease and rice dwarf phytoreovirus. From recent studies of plant-pathogen interactions, microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) or effector proteins are known to induce defense responses to the host plants. Little is known about the molecular recognition events that trigger plant immunity to pest insects. Therefore, we developed screening system for pest-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or effectors from GRH by generating GRH protein library and a reporter rice plant that recognizes GRH attack. ZapII cDNA library of GRH was converted to the phagemid by in vivo excision, and the phagemids were pooled in 100 clones each. The proteins from these pools were prepared with in vitro transcription/translation system. Expression of these proteins was confirmed using [35S]methionine. ZIM promoter that responds to GRH sacking was isolated by microarray analysis. We generate reporter transgenic rice by introduction of ZIMpro:GUS into susceptible rice cultivar Nipponbare.
