Abstract
Verticillium dahliae is a soil-borne vascular pathogen that causes severe wilt symptoms in a wide range of plants. Co-culture of the fungus with Arabidopsis roots for 24 h induces many changes in the gene expression profiles of both partners, even before defense-related phytohormone levels are induced in the plant. Both partners reprogram sugar and amino acid metabolism, activate genes for signal perception and transduction, and induce defense- and stress-responsive genes. Furthermore, analysis of Arabidopsis expression profiles suggests a redirection from growth to defense. After 3 weeks, severe disease symptoms can be detected for wild-type plants while mutants impaired in jasmonate synthesis and perception perform much better. Thus, plant jasmonates have an important influence on the interaction, which is already visible at the mRNA level before hormone changes occur. The plant and fungal genes that rapidly respond to the presence of the partner might be crucial for early recognition steps and the future development of the interaction. Thus they are potential targets for the control of V. dahliae-induced wilt diseases.
Highlights
Vascular wilts caused by members of the genus Verticillium are among the most devastating fungal diseases worldwide, and these soil-borne ascomycete fungi attack a large variety of plant hosts in many parts of the world (Decetelaere et al, 2017) which leads to massive yield losses (Pegg and Brady, 2002)
V. dahliae Is in the Pre-vascular Growth
The propagation of Verticillium species within their hosts is characterized by a biphasic interaction: initially a biotrophic phase allows rapid growth of the microbe in the xylem without major effects on plant performance followed by a necrotrophic phase in which the host is killed (Reusche et al, 2012)
Summary
Vascular wilts caused by members of the genus Verticillium are among the most devastating fungal diseases worldwide, and these soil-borne ascomycete fungi attack a large variety of plant hosts in many parts of the world (Decetelaere et al, 2017) which leads to massive yield losses (Pegg and Brady, 2002). Growing hyphae rapidly penetrate the roots of their hosts, reach the vascular tissue and propagate in the xylem (Puhalla and Bell, 1981; Schnathorst, 1981). These hemibiotrophic fungi show biotrophic behavior that does not lead to severe reductions in plant performance. At later stages, they shift to a necrotrophic interaction characterized by the reprogramming of phytohormone metabolism (Veronese et al, 2003; Thaler et al, 2004; Tjamos et al, 2005), synthesis of hydrogen peroxide
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