Transcriptome sequencing and functional verification revealed the roles of exogenous magnesium in tobacco anti-PVY infection

Huiyan Guo; Chuantao Xu; Fei Wang; Lianqiang Jiang; Xiao Lei; Mingjin Zhang; Rui Li; Xinyu Lan; Zihao Xia; Zhiping Wang; Yuanhua Wu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1232279

Transcriptome sequencing and functional verification revealed the roles of exogenous magnesium in tobacco anti-PVY infection

Front Microbiol. 2023 Jul 27:14:1232279. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1232279. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Huiyan Guo¹, Chuantao Xu^{1

2}, Fei Wang², Lianqiang Jiang³, Xiao Lei², Mingjin Zhang², Rui Li¹, Xinyu Lan¹, Zihao Xia¹, Zhiping Wang¹, Yuanhua Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Liaoning Key Laboratory of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China.
² Luzhou Branch of Sichuan Province Tobacco Company, Luzhou, China.
³ Liangshan Branch of Sichuan Province Tobacco Company, Xichang, China.

Abstract

Potato virus Y (PVY) infection causes necrosis and curling of leaves, which seriously affect the yield and quality of Solanaceous crops. The roles of nutrient elements in the regulation of plant resistance to virus infection has been widely reported, while the mechanisms are poorly studied. Previous studies in our laboratory have demonstrated that foliar spraying of MgSO₄ could induce Nicotiana tabacum resistance to PVY by increasing the activity of defense-related enzymes. Consistent with the results, we found that exogenous magnesium (Mg) had a certain effect on N. tabacum anti-PVY infection. Meanwhile, Illumina RNA sequencing revealed that Mg induced resistance to PVY infection was mainly by regulating carbohydrate metabolism and transportation, nitrogen metabolism, Ca²⁺ signal transduction and oxidative phosphorylation. Moreover, we used virus-induced gene silencing assays to verify the function of homologs of five N. tabacum genes involved in above pathways in N. benthamiana. The results showed that NbTPS and NbGBE were conducive to PVY infection, while NbPPases and NbNR were related to resistance to PVY infection. These results suggested a novel strategy for resistance to PVY infection and provided a theoretical basis for virus-resistance breeding.

Keywords: Mg; PVY; resistance; transcriptome; virus-induced gene silencing.