Genetic Analysis of Rice Mutants Identifies a New Locus at the Pi-ta Region Controlling Pathogen Recognition

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of host and parasite interactions should facilitate the development of novel strategies to control plant diseases. Host interactions with biotrophic and hemi-biotrophic pathogens are known to follow a gene-for-gene specificity. The plant expresses a resistance （R） gene that is effective in preventing disease in response to pathogen races expressing the corresponding avirulence gene. We are studying the interaction mechanisms of the R gene, Pi-ta, in rice with the corresponding avirulence gene, A VR-Pita, found in the hemi-biotrophic pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae （formerly Magnaporthe grisea）. Pi-ta is a putative cytoplasmic receptor with a centrally localized nucleotide-binding site and leucine rich domain at the carboxyl terminus （Bryan et al., 2000; Jia et al., 2000）. AVR-Pita is predicted to be a metalloprotease （Jia et al., 2006b）. The putative processed protein, AVR-Pita176, has been shown to interact with the Pi-ta protein （Bryan et al., 2000; Jia et al., 2000）.