The role of the plant defence activator, acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM), in inducing resistance in riceagainst bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) was studied. Applicationof ASM induced resistance in rice to infection by Xoo. When the pathogen was clip-inoculated to therice plants, it caused bacterial leaf blight symptoms in the untreated control. However, in the riceplants pretreated with ASM, infection was significantly reduced. Induced systemic resistance wasfound to persist for up to 3 days in the pretreated rice plants. Increased phenolic content and accumulationof pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins, viz. chitinase, β-1,3-glucanase and thaumatin-like protein (TLP;PR 5) were observed in rice plants pretreated with ASM followed by inoculation with Xoo. Immunoblotanalysis using rice TLP and tobacco chitinase antiserum revealed rapid induction and over-expressionof 25 and 35 kDa TLP and chitinase, respectively, in rice in response to pretreatment with ASMfollowed by Xoo inoculation. Based on these experiments, it is evident that induction of disease resistancein rice was accelerated following treatment with ASM.