Proteomic Analysis of Kiwifruit in Response to the Postharvest Pathogen, Botrytis cinerea.

Jia Liu,Yongsheng Liu,Yiqing Liu,Yuan Sui,Huizhen Chen

doi:10.3389/fpls.2018.00158

Abstract

Gray mold, caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea, is the most significant postharvest disease of kiwifruit. In the present study, iTRAQ with LC-ESI-MS/MS was used to identify the kiwifruit proteins associated with the response to B. cinerea. A total of 2,487 proteins in kiwifruit were identified. Among them, 292 represented differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs), with 196 DAPs having increased, and 96 DAPs having decreased in accumulation in B. cinerea-inoculated vs. water-inoculated, control kiwifruits. DAPs were associated with penetration site reorganization, cell wall degradation, MAPK cascades, ROS signaling, and PR proteins. In order to examine the corresponding transcriptional levels of the DAPs, RT-qPCR was conducted on a subset of 9 DAPs. In addition, virus-induced gene silencing was used to examine the role of myosin 10 in kiwifruit, a gene modulating host penetration resistance to fungal infection, in response to B. cinerea infection. The present study provides new insight on the understanding of the interaction between kiwifruit and B. cinerea.

Highlights

Kiwifruit is subject to postharvest fungal decay, resulting in significant economic losses during storage and transport
While the kiwifruit tissue in the water-inoculated control remained intact during the 3-day storage at 25◦C (Figures 2A–C), B. cinerea hyphae were observed at 24 h after inoculation in the pathogen-inoculated samples, the majority of the fruit cells did not appear to be degraded (Figure 2D)
A 24 h time point was selected for the proteomic analysis

Summary

Introduction

Kiwifruit is subject to postharvest fungal decay, resulting in significant economic losses during storage and transport. Gray mold, caused by the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea, is the most devastating (Park et al, 2015). B. cinerea is a necrotrophic fungal pathogen in the Sclerotiniaceae. It has a wide host range and can infect more than 200 host plant species, being especially destructive on fruits and vegetables (Wiilliamson et al, 2007). Harren et al (2012) reported that two Ca2+/calcineurin-dependent signaling pathway genes, BcCnA and BcRcn, regulated fungal development and virulence in B. cinerea. A Rab/GTPase family gene, Bcsas, was shown to impact the growth, development, and secretion of extracellular proteins in B. cinerea, in a manner that decreased virulence (Zhang et al, 2014)

Methods

Results

Conclusion