The effector proteins secreted by a pathogen not only promote virulence and infection of the pathogen, but also trigger plant defense response. Therefore, these proteins could be used as important genetic resources for transgenic improvement of plant disease resistance. Magnaporthe oryzae systemic defense trigger 1 (MoSDT1) is an effector protein. In this study, we compared the agronomic traits and blast disease resistance between wild type (WT) and MoSDT1 overexpressing lines in rice. Under control conditions, MoSDT1 transgenic lines increased the number of tillers without affecting kernel morphology. In addition, MoSDT1 transgenic lines conferred improved blast resistance, with significant effects on the activation of callose deposition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and cell death. On the one hand, overexpression of MoSDT1 could delay biotrophy-necrotrophy switch through regulating the expression of biotrophy-associated secreted protein 4 (BAS4) and Magnaporthe oryzaecell death inducing protein 1 (MoCDIP1), and activate plant defense response by regulating the expression of Bsr-d1, MYBS1, WRKY45, peroxidase (POD), heat shock protein 90 (HSP90), allenoxide synthase 2 (AOS2), phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), pathogenesis-related protein 1a (PR1a) in rice. On the other hand, overexpression of MoSDT1 could increase the accumulation of some defense-related primary metabolites such as two aromatic amino acids (L-tyrosine and L-tryptohan), 1-aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid, which could be converted to ethylene, vanillic acid and L-saccharopine. Taken together, overexpression of MoSDT1 confers improved rice blast resistance in rice, through modulation of callose deposition, ROS accumulation, the expression of defense-related genes, and the accumulation of some primary metabolites.
Keywords: Magnaporthe oryzae; effector protein; metabolites; rice; transcription factor.