Defense signaling and pathway interactions involved in rice disease resistance

Plants are constantly faced with a variety of biotic and abiotic challenges during their lifetime. As sessile organisms, plants have evolved elaborate mechanisms to perceive environmental cues and adjust their metabolism in response to microbial infection or abiotic stresses. The host perception of pathogen infection, which is often mediated by disease resistance (R) genes, triggers a cascade of signal transduction that involves protein phosphorylation, ion fluxes, reactive oxygen species, and other signaling events [1]. Subsequent transcriptional and/or post-translational activation of transcription factors leads to induction of a diverse array of plant defense genes such as those encoding pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins and phytoalexin biosynthetic enzymes.