TRANSFORMATION OF THE RICE BLAST FUNGUS MAGNAPORTHE-GRISEA TO BENOMYLRESISTANCE

A transformation method based on a dominant selectable marker (benomyl resistance) was developed for the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grise a. The heterologous gene for beta-tubulin from Neurospora crassa (pBT3 ) was used to obtain benomyl-resistant M. grisea transformants at a fr equency of 20 to 30/mu g of DNA. Control transformations carried out w ith a plasmid conferring hygromycin resistance or a derivative of pBT3 containing a repetitive DNA sequence, yielded the same frequency of t ransformation as that of pBT3. Molecular analysis of the transformants indicated multiple integration of the vector DNA.