Factors Affecting Appressorium Formation in the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe grisea

벼 도열병균의 부차기 형성에 미치는 요인 분석

Magnaporthe grisea, the casual agent of rice blast, requires formation of an appressorium, a dome-shaped and well melanized infection structure, to penetrate its host. Environmental cues that induce appressorium formation include hydrophobicity and hardness of contact surface and chemicals from its host. Artificial surfaces are widely used to induce appressorium formation, but frequencies of appressorium induction are not always consistent. To understand variable induction of appressorium formation in M. grisea, several factors were tested on GelBond. High levels of appressorium formation were induced over a wide range of temperature (20~3$0^{\circ}C$) and pH (4~7). spore age up to 3-week-old did not significantly affect appressorium formation, but only a few apressoria on GelBond. However, adenosine specifically inhibited appressorium formation. Adenosine inhibition of appressorium formation was restored by exogenous addition of cAMP. Germ tube tips of M. grisea maintained the ability to differentiate appressoria by chemical inducers on GelBond at least up to 16 h after conidia germination. These results suggest that environmental factors have little effect on the variable induction of appressorium formation on the artificial surface in M. grisea.