The Plant Infection Test: Spray and Wound-Mediated Inoculation with the Plant Pathogen Magnaporthe Grisea

Plants possess a powerful system to defend themselves against potential threats by pathogenic fungi. For agriculturally important plants, however, current measures to combat such pathogens have proved too conservative and, thus, not sufficiently effective, and they can potentially pose environmental risks. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to identify host-resistance factors to assist in controlling plant diseases naturally through the identification of resistant germplasm, the isolation and characterization of resistance genes, and the molecular breeding of resistant cultivars. In this regard, there is need to establish an accurate, rapid, and large-scale inoculation method to breed and develop plant resistance genes. The rice blast fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea causes severe disease symptoms and yield losses. Recently, M. grisea has emerged as a model organism for studying the mechanisms of plant-fungal pathogen interactions. Hence, we report the development of a plant virulence test method that is specific for M. grisea. This method provides for both spray inoculation with a conidial suspension and wounding inoculation with mycelium cubes or droplets of conidial suspension. The key step of the wounding inoculation method for detached rice leaves is to make wounds on plant leaves, which avoids any interference caused by host penetration resistance. This spray/wounding protocol contributes to the rapid, accurate, and large-scale screening of the pathotypes of M. grisea isolates. This integrated and systematic plant infection method will serve as an excellent starting point for gaining a broad perspective of issues in plant pathology.