Arabidopsis NPR1 protein is an important regulatory component in plant immunity, controlling the onset of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) however, infection of rice spikelets by U. virens suppressed expression of rice defense-related genes homologous to NPR1, PR1, CNGC, and AtMIN7 in Arabidopsis (Fan et al., 2015) which suggests that the SAR pathway in rice spikelets may be suppressed upon U. virens infection. This evidence concerns the gene NPR1 and infection.