Expression profile of microRNA osa-miR160a in Magnaporthe oryzae resistant and susceptible rice cultivars

Abstract

Rice blast is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae due to rice blast enough to feed 60 million people. Recent studies have shown that microRNAs are involved in the rice immunity against M. oryzae. In which, osa-miR160 was reported to play a role in upregulating resistance to M. oryzae through the inhibition of auxin response transcription factors (ARFs) genes. In this study, we analysed and evaluated the expression level of osa-miR160a on blast-resistant and susceptible rice groups grown in Vietnam by the qRT-PCR method. Although the expression of osa-miR160a showed different levels of change in rice cultivars at different hours post-inoculation (hpi), only at 24 hpi was there a statistically significant difference in the osa-miR160a expression between blast-resistant and susceptible rice groups. The expression level of osa-miR160a at 24 post-inoculation (hpi) in the blast-resistant rice group was 2.6 times higher than in the susceptible group. The result showed that osa-miR160a would be a potential molecular marker in assessing the resistance against M. oryzae of different rice cultivars grown in Vietnam.