3d and e). The detachment effect caused by the treatment with crude collagenase was validated at 18 hpi (5.7%; Table 1) but was cancelled out at 24 hpi (96.4%), at which time penetration into the host was established (Table 1). Fungal adhesion on host cells is regarded as a pathogenicity factor (Inoue et al., 2007) and the regulation of fungal adhesion should therefore lead to disease control. Our aim was to select the most effective enzymes for preventing adhesion by M. oryzae germlings and to evaluate the enzymes for disease protection. In our unpublished results of the adhesion test on the hydrophilic surface, adhesion of the germlings (spore and germ tube) is dispensable for appressorium

formation; only the germ tubes must adhere sufficiently to the surface (K. Inoue and K. Ikeda). In the time-lapse experiments, the spore germination was affected pleiotropically in the treatments ATM/ATR assay with various enzymes at 0 hpi. Appressorium formation and adhesion were suppressed by treatment with β-glucanase, α-mannosidase, β-mannosidase, α-chymotrypsin, pepsin, trypsin, lipase, pronase E, crude collagenase, collagenase I, collagenase 4, collagenase V, or collagenase N-2. The pleiotropic effect was observed even at 1 hpi on treatment with α-chymotrypsin, pepsin, trypsin, crude collagenase,

collagenase I, collagenase 4, collagenase V, and collagenase X. These enzymes appear to be able to degrade the multiple substrates of the germlings and subsequently inhibit appressorium formation. Therefore, it was difficult to conclude whether these mafosfamide enzymes were HSP inhibitor ECM-degrading enzymes. The treatment with lipase at 1 hpi only affected appressorium formation, suggesting that lipase is not involved in ECM degradation. To understand ECM-involved adhesion, enzymes that degrade the ECM but do not affect appressorium formation are desirable. In the enzyme treatments at 1 hpi, α-mannosidase, β-mannosidase, pronase E, collagenase N-2, collagenase S-1, and gelatinase B caused the detachment of the germlings without affecting appressorium

formation. In the enzyme treatments at 6 hpi, most germlings produced appressoria and it was difficult to inhibit ECM production. Under these circumstances, pronase E and all MMPs caused significant detachment of the germlings. These enzymes were clearly able to detach spore germlings. Pronase E is known as a mucoprotein-degrading enzyme and can produce a moderate removal effect in B. sorokiniana (Apoga et al., 2001). The MMPs were the most effective enzymes. Collagenase type S-1 and gelatinase B seemed particularly effective ECM target-specific enzymes, with little effect on appressorium formation even at the early-stage applications. The mannose moiety was also a target for ECM degradation. However, there are some discrepancies with results in a previous study. Xiao et al.