A putative effector UvHrip1 inhibits BAX-triggered cell death in , and infection of suppresses defense-related genes expression.

Rice false smut (RFS), caused by , is one of the most detrimental rice fungal diseases and pose a severe threat to rice production and quality. Effectors in often act as a set of essential virulence factors that play crucial roles in the interaction between host and the pathogen. Thus, the functions of each effector in need to be further explored. Here, we performed multiple alignment analysis and demonstrated a small secreted hypersensitive response-inducing protein (hrip), named UvHrip1, was highly conserved in fungi. The predicted SP of UvHrip1 was functional, which guided SUC secreted from yeast and was recognized by plant cells. The localization of UvHrip1 was mainly in the nucleus and cytoplasm monitored through the GFP fusion protein in cells. was drastically up-regulated in the susceptible cultivar LYP9 of rice during the pathogen infection, while did not in the resistant cultivar IR28. We also proved that UvHrip1 suppressed the mammalian BAX-induced necrosis-like defense symptoms in . Furthermore, patterns of expression of defense-related genes, and , were regulated over infection in rice. Collectively, our data demonstrated that infection of suppresses defense-related genes expression and UvHrip1 was most likely a core effector in regulating plant immunity.