Infection of rice plants with the sheath blight fungus causes an activation of pentose phosphate and glycolytic pathways

The response of key regulatory enzymes of the pentose phosphate and glycolytic pathways in disease development was assessed in genetically-related rice plants resistant and susceptible to the sheath blight fungus, Rhizoctonia solani. The plants were grown and maintained under greenhouse conditions and inoculated at 50% flowering. Uninoculated healthy plants served as controls. The activities of pentose phosphate pathway enzymes (glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase) increased more than two-fold in both the resistant and susceptible plants. Activities of ATP- and pyrophosphate-dependent phosphofructokinase and phosphoenolpyruvate phosphatase increased in infected plants while activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in infected plants was lower than in the healthy plants. Furthermore, for enzymes with increased activity, the levels were higher in the resistant line than in the susceptible line. The enhancement of the enzyme activities correlated well with the post infection period. These data suggest that altered carbohydrate metabolism in sheath blight infections may play an important role in modulating the rice plant's response to infection. The isolation of an infection-induced gene encoding a basic enzyme of pentose phosphate and glycolytic pathways could be used to develop plants with more resistance towards sheath blight disease.