When the rice blast fungus attacks rice, fungal proteins are secreted into the plant apoplast to facilitate infection. The rice plant recognizes such secreted proteins, which result in the induction of defense responses. However, the molecular mechanisms of how rice plant recognizes secreted proteins remain elusive. Here, we report that a small, secreted protein, Magnaporthe oryzae snodprot1 homolog (MSP1), is recognized by rice plants and triggers host cell death and defense responses. Furthermore, pre-treatment of rice with Domain II, elicitor-active epitope of MSP1, induces resistance to the pathogen KJ301. We demonstrated that secretion of MSP1 into the apoplast is prerequisite for triggering cell death and activating defense-related gene expression, suggesting that it is recognized by a receptor in the host plasma membrane. Through comprehensively analysis of transcriptional profile in rice leaves and suspension cultured cells (SCCs) in response to exogenous MSP1 and Domain II treatment using 60K Agilent microarray chip, we found that 27 signaling genes, such as F-box(6), MAPK(4), protein kinase(11), transcription factor(6), were up-regulated in leaves and SCCs and six protein kinases were targeted into plasma membrane. Thus, we suggest that some of these genes may act as receptor of MSP1 in response to exogenous MSP1 treatment. Expression pattern of candidate genes was further checked in response to different environment cues using open rice data. These results demonstrate that these genes may be also involved in the signaling in response to cold stress, root-JA treatment and brown plant hopper (BPH) attack.