Comparison of the linear coefficients from the regression analysis of 307 blast (Pyricularia grisea) disease progress curves of 42 rice genotypes, tested over a period of nine seasons, were made by fitting into the logistic and Gompertz models. The regression parameters Yintercept (a), regression coefficient (b), its standard error (SEb), coefficient of determination (R) and the time required f...

Rice blast is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea, which elaborates specialized infection cells called appressoria to penetrate the tough outer cuticle of the rice plant Oryza sativa. We found that the formation of an appressorium required, sequentially, the completion of mitosis, nuclear migration, and death of the conidium (fungal spore) from which the infection originated. Genetic interv...

In additioll to momilactone, phytocassanes A through E (diterpene phytoalexins) were detected in rice leaves in fields suffering from rice blast. Furthermore, phytocassane accumulation was mest abundant at the edges of necrotic lesions, indicating that the phytoalexins prevent subsequent spread of the fungus from the infected site. In pot experiments the pattern of phytocassane accumulation in ...