Abstract:Rice false smut has become one of the major diseases in Northeast China and in the areas of the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River. However, its infection type remains to be controversial. In this study, we constructed a simple and quick approach for the detection of Ustilaginoidea virens and revealed the distribution of U. virens inside different tissues of rice samples in both the seedling stage at 35 days after transplantation and the filling stage. The primers designed from the sequence of U. virens mitochondria showed qualified specificity and sensitivity for 1 pg U. virens DNA. With this detection approach, U. virens was detected in root and sheath tissues in the seedling stage samples and stem tissues in the filling stage samples. The results not only directly offered molecular evidence of the distribution of U. virens in various rice tissues in the seedling and filling stages, but also may be beneficial to develop novel strategies to control rice false smut.