Plant Defense Responses in Medicago truncatula Unveiled by Microarray Analysis

authored by

Miguel Curto, Franziska Krajinski, Helge Küster, Diego Rubiales

Abstract

Plant defense responses are made up of broad plant defense mechanisms that involve an integrated signaling pathway. Powdery mildew caused by Erysiphe pisi is one of the most important diseases of pea. However, the mechanisms and pathways involved in the resistance against E. pisi are yet undiscovered. We studied the transcriptome of two Medicago truncatula genotypes, the powdery mildew susceptible commercial variety Parabinga and the resistant accession SA1306, at 4 and 12 h after E. pisi infection, using Mt16kOLI1 microarrays. Four hundred and forty six probes were differentially expressed between the two M. truncatula genotypes along the time points studied. RNA accumulation patterns suggest that the most prominent responses to pathogen infection occur at early infection stages. Most of the regulated genes are related to cell wall reinforcement, flavonoid, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. In addition, pathogenesis-related proteins and signaling pathways controlled by jasmonic acid and salicylic acid were found to be regulated during pathogen infection. This study provides the first comprehensive view of the genes and pathways activated in the E. pisi/M. truncatula pathosystem, allowing the identification of targets against this important disease.

Organisation(s)

Section Plant Genomics
Institute of Plant Genetics

External Organisation(s)

Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP)

Type

Article

Journal

Plant molecular biology reporter

Volume

33

Pages

569-583

No. of pages

15

ISSN

0735-9640

Publication date

16.06.2015

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Molecular Biology, Plant Science

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-014-0770-9 (Access: Closed)