Isolation of infection-specific sequence tags expressed during early stages of maize anthracnose disease development

Thirteen infection-specifically expressed sequence tags (ESTs) corresponding to genes activated during early stages of the interaction between the hemibiotrophic fungus and causal agent of anthracnose Colletotrichum graminicola, and its host, Zea mays, have been cloned. Six fungal ESTs appear to have a function in reprogramming the protein pattern and/or fungal infection structure differentiation and three plant ESTs seem to be involved in pathogen recognition and mediation of defense responses. Four ESTs share no similarity with known sequences in the database and may thus represent hitherto unknown genes that play a role in the C graminicola-maize interaction. This report adds to the understanding of early stages of the infection, i.e. the biotrophic and beginning necrotrophic phase of disease development, and provides the basis for future functional gene analyses.