BackgroundOccurrence and prevention of diseases have a big impact on sustainability of staple food crop like rice. The crosstalk between phytohormones and secondary messengers in host cell during infestation of pathogens play a pivotal role in defence responses. Apart from SA and JA, the role of brassinosteroids (BR) in defence responses in plants is unprecedented. The calcium signatures observed during early infection process modulates the expression of calmodulin and other Ca2+ binding

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... followed by their interactions with calmodulin binding protein (CBP), which are pivotal in elucidating defence responses in plant. Numerous CBPs have been identified, which modulated stress responses with the help of CBD and other functional domain. Interestingly, Arabidopsis CBP60 (AtCBP60) family protein, SARD1, was involved in defense responses via SAR. However, no rice CBP60 (OsCBP60) has been identified in relation to pathogen infection yet. ResultsIn present investigation, 15 OsCBP60 genes were identified using BLASTP searchers using AtCBP60s as bait sequences. Expression studies showed that 3 OsCBP60s (OsCBP60_5, OsCBP60_10, and OsCBP60_15) genes were upregulated consistently in all the time point studied in rice seedlings treated with fungal (Magnaporthe oryzae) and bacterial (Xanthomonas oryzae) pathogens. Differential expression of OsCBP60s genes were observed in salicylic acid (SA), epi-brassinosteroid (EBR) and jasmonic acid (JA) treated rice seedlings. Taken together, OsCBP60_5 was found to be upregulated in both pathogens and two phytohormones (SA and EBR) treatment. ConclusionsThe differential expression of OsCBP60s genes under phytohormones and pathogens treatment suggests that these genes might be important targets for increasing biotic stress responses in rice.