Comparative transcriptome analysis of R3a and Avr3a-mediated defense responses in transgenic tomato

Dongqi Xue; Han Liu; Dong Wang; Yanna Gao; Zhiqi Jia

doi:10.7717/peerj.11965

Comparative transcriptome analysis of R3a and Avr3a-mediated defense responses in transgenic tomato

PeerJ. 2021 Aug 9:9:e11965. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11965. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Dongqi Xue^{1

2}, Han Liu¹, Dong Wang¹, Yanna Gao^{1

2}, Zhiqi Jia^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Horticulture, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
² Henan Key Laboratory of Fruit and Cucurbit Biology, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.

Abstract

Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans is one of the most devastating diseases in potatoes and tomatoes. At present, several late blight resistance genes have been mapped and cloned. To better understand the transcriptome changes during the incompatible interaction process between R3a and Avr3a, in this study, after spraying DEX, the leaves of MM-R3a-Avr3a and MM-Avr3a transgenic plants at different time points were used for comparative transcriptome analysis. A total of 7,324 repeated DEGs were detected in MM-R3a-Avr3a plants at 2-h and 6-h, and 729 genes were differentially expressed at 6-h compared with 2-h. Only 1,319 repeated DEGs were found in MM-Avr3a at 2-h and 6-h, of which 330 genes have the same expression pattern. Based on GO, KEGG and WCGNA analysis of DEGs, the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, plant-pathogen interaction, and plant hormone signal transduction pathways were significantly up-regulated. Parts of the down-regulated DEGs were enriched in carbon metabolism and the photosynthesis process. Among these DEGs, most of the transcription factors, such as WRKY, MYB, and NAC, related to disease resistance or endogenous hormones SA and ET pathways, as well as PR, CML, SGT1 gene were also significantly induced. Our results provide transcriptome-wide insights into R3a and Avr3a-mediated incompatibility interaction.

Keywords: Hypersensitive response; Late blight; Plant defense; R3a; RNA-seq.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31801880) and the Key Research and Development Foundation of Henan (No. 192102110037). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.