title: Villosiclava virens infects specifically rice and barley stamen filaments due to the unique host cell walls.
abstract: Rice false smut, caused by the fungal pathogen Villosiclava virens, is one of the most important rice diseases in the world. Previous studies reported that the pathogen has less number of cell wall-degraded genes and attacks dominantly rice stamen filaments and extends intercellularly. To reveal why the fungus infects plant stamen filaments, inoculation test on barley was carried out with the similar protocol to rice. The experimental results showed that the fungus could penetrate quickly into barley stamen filaments and extends both intracellularly and intercellularly, usually resulting in severe damage of the stamen filament tissues. It also attacked young barley lodicules and grew intercellularly by chance. The light microscopic observations found that the epidermal and cortex cells in barley stamen filaments arranged loosely with very thick cell walls and large cell gaps. Cellulose microfibrils in barley stamen filament cell walls arranged very sparsely so that the cell walls looked like transparent. The cell walls were very soft and flexible, and often folded. However, V. virens extended dominantly in the noncellulose regions and seemed never to degrade microfibrils in barley and rice cell walls. This suggested that the unique structures of rice and barley stamen filaments should be fit for their function of elongation in anthesis, and also endow with the susceptibility to the fungus, V. virens.
authors.affiliation: The State Kay Laboratory for Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Ming-Li
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Yong
authors.affiliation: The State Kay Laboratory for Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Lin-Lin
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: The State Kay Laboratory for Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Dan-Yang
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: The State Kay Laboratory for Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Yi-Jia
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Fang-Min
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Electron Microscopy Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: The State Kay Laboratory for Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Zheng-Yi
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The State Kay Laboratory for Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Dong-Wei
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D002473:Cell Wall / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D035264:Flowers / Q000382:microbiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001467:Hordeum / Q000382:microbiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006999:Hypocreales / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008853:Microscopy; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D012275:Oryza / Q000382:microbiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology
keywords: cytochemistry; infection; microfibrils; rice false smut; ultrastructure