Compatible and incompatible reactions in rice plants ( Oryza sativa L. cv. Shenxianggen No.4) were resulted from inoculation with two different virulent races of rice blast fungus ( Magnaporthe grisea (Hebert) Barr), and thus an effective infecting system was established between rice plants and the rice blast pathogen. Two cDNA clones that showed induced and temporal patterns in expression in the very early stage in response to infection of the fungus were obtained from the plants by use of differential display. Of the two cDNA clones, Fastresp_a was induced to express in both compatible and incompatible interactions although it was expressed earlier in the former reaction. The second one, Fastresp_b , was only expressed in incompatible interaction. Southern blot analysis of the rice genomic DNA indicated that both of the two clones were from genome of the plant. No significant homology to the two genes was found from the rice gene database. This suggested that they were novel genes in rice and may play important roles in rice resistant response to infection of rice blast fungus.
