Differential gene expression in foxtail millet during incompatible interaction with Uromyces setariae-italicae

Zhi Yong Li; Nan Wang; Li Dong; Hui Bai; Jian Zhang Quan; Lei Liu; Zhi-Ping Dong

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0123825

Differential gene expression in foxtail millet during incompatible interaction with Uromyces setariae-italicae

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 17;10(4):e0123825. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123825. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Zhi Yong Li¹, Nan Wang², Li Dong¹, Hui Bai¹, Jian Zhang Quan¹, Lei Liu¹, Zhi-Ping Dong¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of plant protect, Millet Institute, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, National Foxtail Millet Improvement Center, Minor Cereal Crops Laboratory of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang, China.
² Department of plant protect, Millet Institute, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, National Foxtail Millet Improvement Center, Minor Cereal Crops Laboratory of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang, China; College of Life Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China.

Abstract

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is an important food and fodder grain crop that is grown for human consumption. Production of this species is affected by several plant diseases, such as rust. The cultivar Shilixiang has been identified as resistant to the foxtail millet rust pathogen, Uromyces setariae-italicae. In order to identify signaling pathways and genes related to the plant's defense mechanisms against rust, the Shilixiang cultivar was used to construct a digital gene expression (DGE) library during the interaction of foxtail millet with U. setariae-italicae. In this study, we determined the most abundant differentially expressed signaling pathways of up-regulated genes in foxtail millet and identified significantly up-regulated genes. Finally, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis was used to analyze the expression of nine selected genes, and the patterns observed agreed well with DGE analysis. Expression levels of the genes were also compared between a resistant cultivar Shilixiang and a susceptible cultivar Yugu-1, and the result indicated that expression level of Shilixiang is higher than that of Yugu-1. This study reveals the relatively comprehensive mechanisms of rust-responsive transcription in foxtail millet.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Gene Expression Regulation, Plant*
Plant Diseases / genetics*
Setaria Plant / genetics*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271787, 31101163), the Natural Science Foundation of China of Hebei (C2013301037, C2014301028), and Special Project for Key Basic Research of 973 Program (2014CB160305). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.