Abstract
Zoysia japonica brown spot was caused by necrotrophic fungus Rhizoctonia solani invasion, which led to severe financial loss in city lawn and golf ground maintenance. However, little was known about the molecular mechanism of R. solani pathogenicity in Z. japonica. In this study we examined early stage interaction between R. solani AG1 IA strain and Z. japonica cultivar “Zenith” root by cell ultra-structure analysis, pathogenesis-related proteins assay and transcriptome analysis to explore molecular clues for AG1 IA strain pathogenicity in Z. japonica. No obvious cell structure damage was found in infected roots and most pathogenesis-related protein activities showedg a downward trend especially in 36 h post inoculation, which exhibits AG1 IA strain stealthy invasion characteristic. According to Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database classification, most DEGs in infected “Zenith” roots dynamically changed especially in three aspects, signal transduction, gene translation, and protein synthesis. Total 3422 unigenes of “Zenith” root were predicted into 14 kinds of resistance (R) gene class. Potential fungal resistance related unigenes of “Zenith” root were involved in ligin biosynthesis, phytoalexin synthesis, oxidative burst, wax biosynthesis, while two down-regulated unigenes encoding leucine-rich repeat receptor protein kinase and subtilisin-like protease might be important for host-derived signal perception to AG1 IA strain invasion. According to Pathogen Host Interaction (PHI) database annotation, 1508 unigenes of AG1 IA strain were predicted and classified into 37 known pathogen species, in addition, unigenes encoding virulence, signaling, host stress tolerance, and potential effector were also predicted. This research uncovered transcriptional profiling during the early phase interaction between R. solani AG1 IA strain and Z. japonica, and will greatly help identify key pathogenicity of AG1 IA strain.
Highlights
Rhizoctonia solani is one kind of soilborne basidiomycete fungus, which causes diseases like sheath blight, aerial blight, and brown spot in many monocots and dicots plants (Hane et al, 2014)
Major breaking through in discovering the key part in pathogenicity is the identification in its effector proteins which were delivered into host plant to establish parasitic relationship (Zheng et al, 2013)
Since virulence and its associated protein synthesis is the crucial step in strengthening the pathogenicity during pathogen-host infection, we found seven homologous unigenes matched to Pathogen Host Interaction (PHI)
Summary
Rhizoctonia solani (teleomorph: Thanatephorus cucumeris) is one kind of soilborne basidiomycete fungus, which causes diseases like sheath blight, aerial blight, and brown spot in many monocots and dicots plants (Hane et al, 2014). Major breaking through in discovering the key part in pathogenicity is the identification in its effector proteins which were delivered into host plant to establish parasitic relationship (Zheng et al, 2013). Pathogenesis-related proteins such as chitinase, NADPH oxidase, thaumatin-like protein and β-1,3-glucanase encoded genes under control of cauliflower mosaic virus 35 s in rice or Arabidopsis were overexpressed, which confers improved resistance against R. solani invasion (Molla et al, 2013). These proteins were not host-derived signal perception factors, which caused metabolic disturbance in plant. We checked R. solani AG1 IA strain during 12–48 h infection and 12–48 h post R. solani AG1 IA strain inoculated (hpRs-i) Z. japonica cultivar “Zenith” root (R. solani AG1 IA strain un-inoculated (Rs-ui) “Zenith” root as control) by cell ultra-structure analysis, pathogenesis-related protein assay and transcriptome analysis to seek clues for AG1 IA strain pathogenicity in “Zenith.”
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