Abstract
BackgroundOlive orchards are threatened by a wide range of pathogens. Of these, Verticillium dahliae has been in the spotlight for its high incidence, the difficulty to control it and the few cultivars that has increased tolerance to the pathogen. Disease resistance not only depends on detection of pathogen invasion and induction of responses by the plant, but also on barriers to avoid the invasion and active resistance mechanisms constitutively expressed in the absence of the pathogen. In a previous work we found that two healthy non-infected plants from cultivars that differ in V. dahliae resistance such as ‘Frantoio’ (resistant) and ‘Picual’ (susceptible) had a different root morphology and gene expression pattern. In this work, we have addressed the issue of basal differences in the roots between Resistant and Susceptible cultivars.ResultsThe gene expression pattern of roots from 29 olive cultivars with different degree of resistance/susceptibility to V. dahliae was analyzed by RNA-Seq. However, only the Highly Resistant and Extremely Susceptible cultivars showed significant differences in gene expression among various groups of cultivars. A set of 421 genes showing an inverse differential expression level between the Highly Resistant to Extremely Susceptible cultivars was found and analyzed. The main differences involved higher expression of a series of transcription factors and genes involved in processes of molecules importation to nucleus, plant defense genes and lower expression of root growth and development genes in Highly Resistant cultivars, while a reverse pattern in Moderately Susceptible and more pronounced in Extremely Susceptible cultivars were observed.ConclusionAccording to the different gene expression patterns, it seems that the roots of the Extremely Susceptible cultivars focus more on growth and development, while some other functions, such as defense against pathogens, have a higher expression level in roots of Highly Resistant cultivars. Therefore, it seems that there are constitutive differences in the roots between Resistant and Susceptible cultivars, and that susceptible roots seem to provide a more suitable environment for the pathogen than the resistant ones.
Highlights
Olive orchards are threatened by a wide range of pathogens
Differential gene expression among groups The peer comparison between the disease resistance groups showed a large number of differentially expressed genes in roots between cultivars Highly Resistant (HR) and Extremely Susceptible (ES) compared to the intermediate groups of disease response (Table 1)
By setting the threshold at 1% of False Discovery Rate (FDR) and any Fold Change (FC), the expression pattern in the roots of cultivars HR differed in 255 unique genes with resistant (R) group, 3883 with Moderately Susceptible (MS) group, 1161 with Susceptible (S) group and 418 with group ES (Table 1)
Summary
Olive orchards are threatened by a wide range of pathogens. Of these, Verticillium dahliae has been in the spotlight for its high incidence, the difficulty to control it and the few cultivars that has increased tolerance to the pathogen. In a previous work we found that two healthy non-infected plants from cultivars that differ in V. dahliae resistance such as ‘Frantoio’ (resistant) and ‘Picual’ (susceptible) had a different root morphology and gene expression pattern. Infection by V. dahliae in ‘Picual’ roots causes a marked genetic response in early stages, and promotes the expression of those genes involved in plant defense and protein turnover [12] These results suggest that differences in the expression profile, especially of roots, may be relevant for each cultivar’s susceptibility to this infection. Olive cultivars show a differentiated ability to avoid the development of disease symptoms, which could correspond to the degree of differential resistance/susceptibility Considering these previous findings, variability in the resistance level might be defined, at least partially, by differences in the gene expression pattern in roots in response to the pathogen and prior to infection.
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