Comparative transcriptome profiling of Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici during compatible and incompatible interactions with sister wheat lines carrying and lacking Pm40

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 5;13(7):e0198891. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198891. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt) is an obligate biotrophic fungus that causes wheat powdery mildew, which is a devastating disease in wheat. However, little is known about the pathogenesis of this fungus, and differences in the pathogenesis of the same pathogen at various resistance levels in hosts have not been determined. In the present study, leaf tissues of both Pm40-expressing hexaploid wheat line L658 and its Pm40-deficient sister line L958 were harvested at 0 (without inoculation), 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours post-inoculation (hpi) with Bgt race 15 and then subjected to RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). In addition, we also observed changes in fungal growth morphology at the aforementioned time points. There was a high correlation between percentage of reads mapped to the Bgt reference genome and biomass of the fungus within the leaf tissue during the growth process. The percentage of mapped reads of Bgt in compatible interactions was significantly higher (at the p<0.05 level) than that of reads in incompatible interactions from 24 to 72 hpi. Further functional annotations indicated that expression levels of genes encoding H+-transporting ATPase, putative secreted effector proteins (PSEPs) and heat shock proteins (HSPs) were significantly up-regulated in compatible interactions compared with these levels in incompatible interactions, particularly at 72 hpi. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis suggested that genes involved in the endocytosis pathway were also enriched in compatible interactions. Overall, genes encoding H+-transporting ATPase, PSEPs and HSPs possibly played crucial roles in successfully establishing the pathogenesis of compatible interactions during late stages of inoculation. The study results also indicated that endocytosis is likely to play a potential role in Bgt in establishing compatible interactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine Triphosphatases / genetics
  • Ascomycota / pathogenicity
  • Disease Resistance / genetics*
  • Endocytosis / genetics
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / genetics
  • Heat-Shock Proteins / genetics
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions / genetics
  • Plant Diseases / genetics*
  • Plant Diseases / microbiology
  • Protein Interaction Maps / genetics
  • Proton-Translocating ATPases / genetics
  • Transcriptome / genetics*
  • Triticum / genetics*
  • Triticum / microbiology

Substances

  • Heat-Shock Proteins
  • Adenosine Triphosphatases
  • Proton-Translocating ATPases

Grants and funding

The financial support of the Science and Technology Planning Project of Sichuan Province of China (2016NYZ0053-4) had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The responsible person of the Science and Technology Planning Project of Sichuan Province of China 2016NYZ0053-4; National Natural Science Foundation of China 31571661; Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province of China 2017JY0012; Specific Foundation of Agronomy nyhyzx3-15 is Min Zhang. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.