Abstract
The soil-borne fungi Fusarium pseudograminearum and Rhizoctonia cerealis are the major pathogens for the economically important diseases Fusarium crown rot (FCR) and sharp eyespot of common wheat (Triticum aestivum), respectively. However, there has been no report on the broad resistance of wheat genes against both F. pseudograminearum and R. cerealis. In the current study, we identified TaWAK-6D, a wall-associated kinase (WAK) which is an encoding gene located on chromosome 6D, and demonstrated its broad resistance role in the wheat responses to both F. pseudograminearum and R. cerealis infection. TaWAK-6D transcript induction by F. pseudograminearum and R. cerealis was related to the resistance degree of wheat and the gene expression was significantly induced by exogenous pectin treatment. Silencing of TaWAK-6D compromised wheat resistance to F. pseudograminearum and R. cerealis, and repressed the expression of a serial of wheat defense-related genes. Ectopic expression of TaWAK-6D in Nicotiana benthamiana positively modulated the expression of several defense-related genes. TaWAK-6D protein was determined to localize to the plasma membrane in wheat and N. benthamiana. Collectively, the TaWAK-6D at the plasma membrane mediated the broad resistance responses to both F. pseudograminearum and R. cerealis in wheat at the seedling stage. This study, therefore, concludes that TaWAK-6D is a promising gene for improving wheat broad resistance to FCR and sharp eyespot.
Highlights
Wheat is one of the most important staple crops as it provides about a fifth of the total calories consumed by humans and contributes more protein than any other food source (Consortium, 2018)
We mined a wheat wall-associated kinase (WAK) gene TaWAK-6D in the wheat response to both fungal pathogens and investigated the predicted subcellular localization of the protein and the functional role in wheat resistance responses to infection of R. cerealis and F. pseudograminearum. These results suggested that TaWAK-6D, distributed at the plasma membrane, could modulate the expression of a serial of defense-related genes in wheat, including TaMPK3, TaERF3, TaPR1, TaChitinase3, TaChitinase4, and Tadefensin, and positively participated in the pectin-induced resistance responses to R. cerealis and F. pseudograminearum
TaWAK-6D Is Involved in Wheat Resistance Responses to R. cerealis and F. pseudograminearum
Summary
Wheat is one of the most important staple crops as it provides about a fifth of the total calories consumed by humans and contributes more protein than any other food source (Consortium, 2018). A few quantitative trait loci (QTL) were reported to confer resistance to sharp eye spots or FCR in wheat (Smiley and Yan, 2009; Chen et al, 2013; Wu et al, 2017; Yang X. et al, 2019). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on 234 Chinese wheat cultivars revealed that 286 SNPs to be significantly associated with FCR resistance, of which 266, 6, and 8 were distributed on chromosomes 6A, 6B, and 6D FCR-resistant QTLs, respectively (Yang X. et al, 2019). A recent study reported that by virus-inducing gene silencing (VIGS) and ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutant, the loss-of-function of the wheat dirigent gene TaDIR-B1 increases host resistance to FCR (Yang et al, 2021). Works of research about the functional role of FCR resistance-related genes are still rare
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