Abstract
Ustilaginoidea virens, the false smut pathogen of rice, produces false smut balls on spikelets after heading. To clarify how the fungus invades spikelets during the booting stage, we developed a fungal strain that expresses a green fluorescent protein gene and injected conidia from this strain into rice sheaths. Observations at 48 h post-inoculation showed many conidia were present on spikelet surfaces, and the conidia had germinated and the hyphae have gradually grown by 120 h post-inoculation. By 144 h, hyphae had invaded spikelets through their apices, via the small gap between the lemma and palea and had already reached all floral organs.
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Ashizawa, T., Takahashi, M., Arai, M. et al. Rice false smut pathogen, Ustilaginoidea virens, invades through small gap at the apex of a rice spikelet before heading. J Gen Plant Pathol 78, 255–259 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-012-0389-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-012-0389-3