Prehaustorial local resistance to coffee leaf rust in a Mexican cultivar involves expression of salicylic acid-responsive genes

Edgar Couttolenc-Brenis; Gloria L Carrión; Luc Villain; Fernando Ortega-Escalona; Daniel Ramírez-Martínez; Martín Mata-Rosas; Alfonso Méndez-Bravo

doi:10.7717/peerj.8345

Prehaustorial local resistance to coffee leaf rust in a Mexican cultivar involves expression of salicylic acid-responsive genes

PeerJ. 2020 Jan 22:8:e8345. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8345. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Edgar Couttolenc-Brenis^{1

2}, Gloria L Carrión³, Luc Villain⁴, Fernando Ortega-Escalona⁵, Daniel Ramírez-Martínez⁶, Martín Mata-Rosas¹, Alfonso Méndez-Bravo⁷

Affiliations

¹ Red de Manejo Biotecnológico de Recursos, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Xalapa, Veracruz, México.
² Current affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrìcolas y Pecuarias, C.E. Cotaxtla, Veracruz, México.
³ Red de Biodiversidad y Sistemática de Hongos, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Xalapa, Veracruz, México.
⁴ La Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, UMR, RPB, CIRAD, Montpellier, France.
⁵ Red de Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Xalapa, Veracruz, México.
⁶ Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México.
⁷ CONACYT-Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México.

Abstract

Background: In Mexico, coffee leaf rust (CLR) is the main disease that affects the Arabica coffee crop. In this study, the local response of two Mexican cultivars of Coffea arabica (Oro Azteca and Garnica) in the early stages of Hemileia vastatrix infection was evaluated.

Methods: We quantified the development of fungal structures in locally-infected leaf disks from both cultivars, using qRT-PCR to measure the relative expression of two pathogenesis recognition genes (CaNDR1 and CaNBS-LRR) and three genes associated with the salicylic acid (SA)-related pathway (CaNPR1, CaPR1, and CaPR5).

Results: Resistance of the cv. Oro Azteca was significantly higher than that of the cv. Garnica, with 8.2% and 53.3% haustorial detection, respectively. In addition, the non-race specific disease resistance gene (CaNDR1), a key gene for the pathogen recognition, as well as the genes associated with SA, CaNPR1, CaPR1, and CaPR5, presented an increased expression in response to infection by H. vastatrix in cv. Oro Azteca if comparing with cv. Garnica. Our results suggest that Oro Azteca's defense mechanisms could involve early recognition of CLR by NDR1 and the subsequent activation of the SA signaling pathway.

Keywords: Coffea arabica; Defense gene-expression; Leaf rust; SAR; Salicylic acid.

Grants and funding

Alfonso Méndez Bravo was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT, Mexico) grant numbers CB-2014, 242999 and LN-2017, 280505. Martín Mata-Rosas was supported by CONACYT (CB-2014, 242999) and institutional funding (INECOL). Edgar Couttolenc-Brenis was supported by CONACYT, with the doctoral scholarship 311030. There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.