G Protein Regulation of Disease Resistance During Infection of Rice with Rice Blast Fungus

When the effects of specific pathogen-produced elicitor compounds on plant cells are recognized by specific plant resistance (R) gene products, a local defense response called the hypersensitive response is triggered. Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and induction of defense genes are components of this response. In rice cultivars harboring null mutations in the G protein alpha subunit, RGA1, ROS production and defense gene induction by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea and its sphingolipid elicitors are reduced or delayed. These results implicate heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins) as important players in plant pathogen response.