A pathogen lncRNA secreted into rice sequesters a host miRNA for virulence

Fungal pathogen isolates and host plants Maintenance of M. oryzae and medium composition are as described previously 38 . The M. oryzae wild-type strain Guy11 isolate was grown on complete medium in a growth chamber at 25 °C in a 12-h light–12-h dark photoperiod for 10 days before conidia were collected for inoculation of rice plants. Mycelial growth of M. oryzae strains in different stress conditions was measured on complete agar medium supplemented with or without chemicals for 10 days. The chemicals included 5 mM H 2 O 2 , which was supplemented to induce oxidative stress; 200 μg ml −1 congo red or calcofluor white, which was used to induce cell wall stress; and 0.01% SDS, which was used to induce cell membrane stress. Rice infection with M. oryzae was conducted as previously described 37 . Conidial suspensions (1 × 10 5 spores ml −1 ) of M. oryzae strains were used to inoculate rice and incubated for 5–7 days before being photographed. The relative fungal DNA amount was calculated using the threshold cycle value ( C T ) of M. oryzae POT2 DNA ( MoPOT2 ) against C T of rice ubiquitin genomic DNA 39 . The infection-related development of M. oryzae was examined following previous reports 40 at indicated hpi with M. oryzae strains. …