Plant Materials, Fungal Materials, and Growth Conditions

Wild-type (O. sativa L. ssp. japonica cv. Nipponbare (Nip) and Zhonghua 11) and overexpression transgenic lines of rice USPs coding genes (OsUSP3^OX, OsUSP4^OX, OsUSP5^OX) were used in this study. All rice seeds were rinsed twice with demineralized water and germinated for 3 days at 28°C on sterilized wet filter paper. Germinated seeds were placed in a disposable plastic cup and grown in a greenhouse for 2 weeks (16/8 h light/dark cycle, 28 ± 2°C, and 75% humidity). Three M. oryzae strains of 248, 235, and 162 were selected from strains that we collected from the disease nursery of two municipal rice breeding institutes (Jintan: 31°40′20″N, 119°21′34″E; Ganyu: 34°54′10″N, 118°59′32″E).