Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus L.) are a global popular vegetable and are widely planted worldwide. However, cucumbers are susceptible to various infectious diseases such as Fusarium and Verticillium wilt, downy and powdery mildew, and bacterial soft rot, which results in substantial economic losses. Grafting is an effective approach widely used to control these diseases. The present study investigated the role of wax and the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway in black-seed pumpkin rootstock-grafted cucumbers. Our results showed that grafted cucumbers had a significantly higher cuticular wax contents on the fruit surface than that of self-rooted cucumbers at all stages observed. A total of 1132 differently expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in grafted cucumbers compared with self-rooted cucumbers. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, phenylalanine metabolism, plant circadian rhythm, zeatin biosynthesis, and diterpenoid biosynthesis were significantly enriched. In this study, 1 and 13 genes involved in wax biosynthesis and the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway, respectively, were up-regulated in grafted cucumbers. Our data indicated that the up-regulated genes in the wax and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathways may contribute to disease resistance in rootstock-grafted cucumbers, which provides promising targets for enhancing disease resistance in cucumbers by genetic manipulation.
Keywords: RNA-seq; biosynthetic pathway; cucumber; grafted cucumber; pest and disease control.