Poster: Late and Moved Abstracts

Abs # 1396: A whole genome Magnaporthe grisea microarray

Presenter:	Harrison, Scott , Scott_Harrison@agilent.com
Authors	Harrison, Scott  (A)   Mitchell, Thomas  (B)   Coughlan, Sean  (A)   Dean, Ralph  (B)
Affiliations:	(A): Agilent Technologies, Agbiotech Program (B): North Carolina State University, Fungal Genomics Laboratory

The fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea, causal agent of rice blast disease, is one of the main pathological threats to food supplies worldwide. Annually, enough rice is lost to this disease to feed an estimated 60 million people per year, while newly emerging strains attack other cereals including wheat and barley. The disease is also developing as a serious problem on cold season turf grass. Few fungal plant pathogens rival rice blast for the sophistication of molecular and classical genetic tools that have been developed, as well as the level of organization of the research community. Rice blast is a compelling experimental system for elucidating numerous aspects of host-parasite interactions, including infection related morphogenesis, cultivar and species specificity, and intracellular signaling pathways. The rice blast genome is 40 Mb and organized into 7 chromosomes. Draft shotgun genome sequencing of M. grisea strain 70-15 was completed and released in June 2002 along with automated annotation of the predicted genes. Using two different gene prediction models, we have identified approximately 14,000 open reading frames. These ORFs were used as templates for designing the Magnaporthe whole genome microarray chip. The chip was created on Agilent Technologies in-situ 60-mer oligonucleotide probe synthesis platform. Results from initial gene expression experiments using these chips showing global changes in transcript profiles under different nutritional regimes and at different developmental states will be presented.