Expression of green fluorescent protein in the obligately biotrophic fungal plant pathogen Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici

Functional analysis of genes of the obligately biotrophic rust fungi is difficult due to the lack of a reliable and efficient transformation method. Progress in transformation is hampered by the difficult handling of these organisms. Using a biolistic transformation protocol, we here show for the first time that green fluorescent protein (GFP) can be used as a reporter gene in a rust fungus, namely Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. Thus, GFP-fusions will allow in vivo labelling of proteins that could provide insights into the interaction of the pathogen with its host.