Abstract

The hrp genes of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xooc), which is the causal agent of bacterial leaf streak in rice, possesses the ability to elicit hypersensitive response on nonhost plants and the pathogenicity in host rice. In order to analyze the function of the hrp genes, we developed hrp-inducing systems using transcriptional hrp: :gfp fusions with the promoters of hrpX and hpa 1 of Xooc. The levels of GFP protein expression indicated that the hrp gene expression in Xooc was not efficiently induced in NB medium, but efficiently in XOM3 medium. Using the hrpG and hrpX mutants of Xooc as the controls, the results by RT-PCR demonstrated that in wild type strain the expression of the hpa1 gene was suppressed in NB medium, but was increased in XOM3 medium. When incubated in XOM3, the expression of the hpa1 gene was abolished in hrpX mutant, while the level of the hpa1 gene expression was lower in the hrpG mutant than that in wild-type strain. More importantly, it was found that the induction of the hrp gene expression was strongly increased in response to rice suspension cells and callus in this study. This suggests that the hrp-inducing systems, XOM3 or rice suspension cells or rice callus, for the induction of the hrp genes expression be useful for functionally analyzing the hrp genes, mining effectors secreted by the type III secretion apparatus and understanding pathogenicity determinats of Xooc.