Expression of PAL and PR2 pathogenesis related genes in barley plants challenged with closely related Pyrenophora species

Abstract

Net blotch and leaf stripe caused by Pyrenophora teres and Pyrenophora graminea, respectively, are economical diseases of barley worldwide. Relatively little is known about the defense responses of barley challenged with these two closely related species. In the current work, expression of two well known defense-related genes PAL and PR2 were monitored in resistant and susceptible barley cultivars at early points of infection using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Data showed significant variance in the expression patterns of the both genes between barley P. teres or P. graminea interactions as compared to the non-inoculated controls. It is also noteworthy that PAL and PR2 genes have a higher constitutive expression and faster induction in the resistant cultivar as compared with the susceptible one after infection with each pathogen. However, PCR (qPCR) analysis revealed higher gene expression in resistant barley plants inoculated with P. graminea as compared with P. teres, with a maximum expression for PR2 (13.8 and 6.41-fold) and PAL (14.8 and 7.89-fold) respectively, at 6 days post inoculation. The obtained results suggest that PAL and PR2 genes, positively regulate P. teres and P. graminea—resistance in barley plants during disease progress, which can provide testable hypotheses that will need direct future tests to determine how these changes may be specified in the genome of these closely related Pyrenophora species.