Several wall-associated kinases participate positively and negatively in basal defense against rice blast fungus

摘要

BackgroundReceptor-like kinases are well-known to play key roles in disease resistance. Among them, the Wall-associated kinases (WAKs) have been shown to be positive regulators of fungal disease resistance in several plant species. WAK genes are often transcriptionally regulated during infection but the pathways involved in this regulation are not known. In rice, the OsWAK gene family is significantly amplified compared to Arabidopsis. The possibility that several WAKs participate in different ways to basal defense has not been addressed. Moreover, the direct requirement of rice OSWAK genes in regulating defense has not been explored.