RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access

Feeding on resistant rice leads to enhanced expression of defender against apoptotic cell death (OoDAD1) in the Asian rice gall midge Deepak K. Sinha1, Isha Atray1, JS Bentur2,3 and Suresh Nair1* Background: The Asian rice gall midge (Orseolia oryzae) is a destructive insect pest of rice. Gall midge infestation in rice triggers either compatible or incompatible interactions leading to survival or mortality of the feeding maggots, respectively. In incompatible interactions, generation of plant allelochemicals/defense molecules and/or inability of the maggots to continue feeding on the host initiate(s) apoptosis within the maggots. Unraveling these molecular events, triggered within the maggots as a response to feeding on resistant hosts, will enable us to obtain a better understanding of host resistance. The present study points towards the likely involvement of a defender against apoptotic cell death gene (DAD1) in the insect in response to the host defense. Results: The cDNA coding for the DAD1 orthologue in the rice gall midge (OoDAD1) consisted of 339 nucleotides with one intron of 85 bp and two exons of 208 and 131 nucleotides. The deduced amino acid sequence of OoDAD1 showed a high degree of homology (94.6 %) with DAD1 orthologue from the Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor) —