We isolated promoters of 12 genes from the rice blast fungus based on the sequences of randomly selected expressed sequence tags (ESTs) (appressorium formation stage cDNA library of Magnaporthe available from GenBank). These promoters (and the 5' coding regions if any) were fused in frame with egfp, and their expression patterns were examined under the epifluorescence microscope. Among them, two turned out to be specifically active in structures necessary for infection, viz. a promoter of adenylate cyclase interacting protein 1-like gene expressed in conidia, germ tubes, and appressoria, and a promoter of putative membrane-associated or secreted protein gene specifically expressed in appressoria. Although targeted knockout mutants of either gene failed to show detectable phenotypic alterations under laboratory conditions, these ESTs should be useful for identification of genes expressed during infection stages.
We report here for the first time on the construction of proteomes from wheat lemma at the anthesis stage. After transfer of lemma proteins to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes, seventy larger spots were subjected to peptide sequence analysis; the amino acid sequences could be described for forty-eight of these proteins. The result suggested that wheat proteins were less N-terminally blocked compared to rice proteins, which are known to have a much higher ratio of N-terminal blocks. We further analyzed the internal sequences of eight blocked proteins by the Cleveland peptide mapping method. Out of these total 56 amino acid sequences, forty-one could be assigned to the corresponding expressed sequence tags (ESTs). The expression profile of lemma proteins was generally similar to that of leaf, and the majority of identified proteins were related to cellular metabolisms. We analyzed the internal sequences of one protein spot present in lemma, which was not present in leaf.