Abstract
Phytoplasma-infected Chinese cherry (Cerasus pseudocerasus L.) exhibits symptoms of phyllody and stiff fruit. To reveal the molecular mechanism of stiff fruit, the current study integrated transcriptome with metabolome. Results showed that the differentially expressed genes and the differentially accumulated metabolites were related to a high proportion of two aspects: pathogen resistance and signaling or regulatory functions, and the molecular mechanism of stiff fruit that were majorly induced by plant biotic stress response via phytohormones signal transduction, especially signal pathways of salicylic acid, auxin, and abscisic acid. Notably, there was a large overlap between phytoplasma stress response and drought stress response genes. Phytohormone content displayed significant difference that abscisic acid and salicylic acid content of phytoplasma-infected fruit were higher than that of healthy fruit, whereas zeatin, jasmonic acid, and IAA showed the opposite results. In addition, the expression of key candidate genes, including IAA4, IAA9, IAA14, IAA31, ARF5, ARF9, GH3.1, GH3.17, SAUR20, SAUR32, SAUR40, PR1a, PRB1, TGA10, SnRK2.3, and AHK2, was responsible for cherry stiff fruit. In conclusion, the current study contributed a foundation for understanding the molecular mechanism of cherry phyllody disease on stiff fruit, a better understanding of fruit development, and found the potential candidate genes involved in cherry stiff fruit, which could be used for further research in associated fields.
Highlights
Chinese cherry (Cerasus pseudocerasus L.) is one of the four major cherry cultivars inChina
GO enrichment analysis indicated that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of this study were enriched in three categories: biological process (BP), cell component (CC), and molecular function (MF)
Under CC, most of the DEGs belonged to three subcategories: microtubule, supramolecular complex, and supramolecular polymer
Summary
Chinese cherry (Cerasus pseudocerasus L.) is one of the four major cherry cultivars inChina. In 1971, cherry phytoplasma diseases were first reported by Granett and Gilme as the symptoms of cherry X disease [1]. The subgroup 16SrV-B of sweet cherry virescence disease and the subgroup 16SrI-B phytoplasma of sweet cherry fasciation disease have been reported in recent years [2,3,4]. Cherry phytoplasma diseases are rarely reported in China. From 2016 to 2020, a large-scale (over 50%) phytoplasma disease incidence was discovered in the Chinese cherry planting area in Chongqing, China. The previous study identified that Chinese cherry was infected by 16SrV-B subgroup phytoplasma and named cherry phyllody disease (ChP) [5]. The cherry phytoplasma disease with complicated symptoms: stiff fruit show small size and deformity, stay in young fruit period, and drop within a week before fruit expansion stage (Figure 1)
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