Reactive Oxygen Species Play a Role in the Infection of the Necrotrophic Fungi, Rhizoctonia solani in Wheat.

Rhonda C Foley,Jonathan P Anderson,Karam B Singh,Brendan N Kidd,James K Hane,Rita Grosch

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152548

Rhonda C Foley, Jonathan P Anderson + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152548

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Abstract

Rhizoctonia solani is a nectrotrophic fungal pathogen that causes billions of dollars of damage to agriculture worldwide and infects a broad host range including wheat, rice, potato and legumes. In this study we identify wheat genes that are differentially expressed in response to the R. solani isolate, AG8, using microarray technology. A significant number of wheat genes identified in this screen were involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and redox regulation. Levels of ROS species were increased in wheat root tissue following R. solani infection as determined by Nitro Blue Tetrazolium (NBT), 3,3'-diaminobenzidine (DAB) and titanium sulphate measurements. Pathogen/ROS related genes from R. solani were also tested for expression patterns upon wheat infection. TmpL, a R. solani gene homologous to a gene associated with ROS regulation in Alternaria brassicicola, and OAH, a R. solani gene homologous to oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase which has been shown to produce oxalic acid in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, were highly induced in R. solani when infecting wheat. We speculate that the interplay between the wheat and R. solani ROS generating proteins may be important for determining the outcome of the wheat/R. solani interaction.

Highlights

The soil-borne pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani is a damaging necrotrophic fungus causing billions of dollars of losses to agriculture worldwide [1]
A growth cabinet based pathosystem between wheat and R. solani was modeled on work previously developed for R. solani/Arabidopsis interactions [49]
RNA extracted from Chinese Spring wheat root tissue from day 4 post-infection with R. solani AG8 grown on minimal media was used to identify differentially expressed genes compared to mock treatment using DNA microarray analyses

Summary

Introduction

The soil-borne pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani is a damaging necrotrophic fungus causing billions of dollars of losses to agriculture worldwide [1]. This pathogen has a broad host range and infects major crops including barley, canola, legumes, potato, rice and wheat. Crop losses due to soil-borne pathogens are often underestimated and their economic importance is expected to continue to rise due to the increased implementation of reduced or no-tillage farming practices. R. solani is classified into fourteen reproductively incompatible anastomosis groups (AGs). AG8, is a devastating pathogen causing bare patch of cereals, brassicas and legumes [2, 3].

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