Functional Identification of Novel Cell Death-inducing Effector Proteins from Magnaporthe oryzae

Secreted effector proteins play critical roles in plant-fungal interactions. The Magnaporthe oryzae genome encodes a large number of secreted proteins. However, the function of majority of M. oryzae secreted proteins remain to be characterized. We previously identified 851 in planta-expressed M. oryzae genes encoding putative secreted proteins, and characterized five M. oryzae cell death-inducing proteins MoCDIP1 to MoCDIP5. In the present study, we expand our work on identification of novel MoCDIP proteins.

We performed transient expression assay of 98 more in planta-expressed M. oryzae putative secreted protein genes, and identified eight novel proteins, MoCDIP6 to MoCDIP13, that induced plant cell death. Yeast secretion assay and truncation expression analysis revealed that the signal peptides that led the secretion of proteins to the extracellular space, were required for cell death inducing activity of the novel MoCDIPs except for MoCDIP8. Exogenous treatment of rice seedlings with recombinant MoCDIP6 or MoCDIP7 resulted in enhanced resistance to blast fungus, indicating that the two MoCDIPs trigger cell death and elicit defense responses in rice.

The newly identified MoCDIP6 to MoCDIP13, together with previously identified MoCDIP1 to MoCDIP5, provide valuable targets for further dissection of the molecular mechanisms underlying the rice-blast fungus interaction.