Molecular Basis of Disease Resistance in Banana Progenitor Musa balbisiana against Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum

Abstract

Banana Xanthomonas wilt disease, caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm), is a major threat to banana production in east Africa. All cultivated varieties of banana are susceptible to Xcm and only the progenitor species Musa balbisiana was found to be resistant. The molecular basis of susceptibility and resistance of banana genotypes to Xcm is currently unknown. Transcriptome analysis of disease resistant genotype Musa balbisiana and highly susceptible banana cultivar Pisang Awak challenged with Xcm was performed to understand the disease response. The number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was higher in Musa balbisiana in comparison to Pisang Awak. Genes associated with response to biotic stress were up-regulated in Musa balbisiana . The DEGs were further mapped to the biotic stress pathways. Our results suggested activation of both PAMP-triggered basal defense and disease resistance (R) protein-mediated defense in Musa balbisiana as early response to Xcm infection. This study reports the first comparative transcriptome profile of the susceptible and resistant genotype of banana during early infection with Xcm and provide insights on the defense mechanism in Musa balbisiana , which can be used for genetic improvement of commonly cultivated banana varieties.

Transcriptome analysis reveals defense-related genes and pathways against Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.)

“…Interestingly, Capana00g000272 (calcineurin B-like protein), Capana04g001405 (carboxylesterase), Capana09g000319 (aldehyde dehydrogenase) and Capana09g000326 (glycosyltransferase) were also specifically expressed in VI037601, and the expression of which was significantly up-regulated after Xcv inoculation ( S5 Table ), indicating that they might play an important role in response to Xcv infection in VI037601. Receptor-like kinases are key pattern recognition receptors in response to pathogens [ 50 ]. Our findings also showed that many receptor-like kinases were significantly differentially expressed in ECW and VI037601, such as G-type lectin S-receptor-like serine/threonine-protein kinase (Capana07g002260) and LRR receptor-like serine/threonine-protein kinase (Capana03g000831), which were up regulated in ECW and VI037601 post Xcv inoculation ( Fig 4 and S5 and S8 Tables).…”

Genetic diversity and structure of Musa balbisiana populations in Vietnam and its implications for the conservation of banana crop wild relatives

“…Alternatively, the southern M. balbisiana might be feral, originating after the recent human introduction of the species in the region as a source of food, medicine, fibre, and animal fodder. M. balbisiana was known by locals in northern Vietnam because of its higher tolerance to cold, drought and potential plant diseases, encouraging its cultivation in other parts of the country [38,39,42]. The southern populations of M. balbisiana, especially VTN-S1, were also found close to cultivated varieties.…”

“…This bias was recently attributed to interspecific recombination and large structural variations between the A and B genomes, highlighting a complex origin of cultivated bananas with one or multiple backcrosses [33][34][35][36]. In contrast to cultivars only consisting of genetic information of Musa acuminata (AA, AAA, AAAA), the presence of the B genome has been associated with increased drought and cold tolerance [37][38][39][40], resistance to Xanthomonas wilt [41][42][43], and tolerance against banana weevils [44]. The availability of a high quality reference genome [45] and recent identification of large structural variations between A and B genomes [36] will aid in the development of more optimal breeding of banana cultivars and considerable research has been done on assessing the geographic distribution and genetic diversity of wild M. balbisiana populations [29,[46][47][48][49].…”

An ERF transcription factor from Brassica oleracea: a new member of the emerging pathogenicity hub in plant-Xanthomonas interactions

“…Plants commonly harbour more than a hundred AP2/ERF transcription factors that generally have low sequence similarity and exert various functions, many of which are associated with resistance to various stress factors, which is especially true for the ERF group within the AP2/ERF family (Gutterson & Reuber, 2004;Licausi et al, 2013;Xie et al, 2019). Numerous studies have demonstrated that resistance to different pathogens, including several Xanthomonas campestris pathovars, is positively correlated with ERF expression levels in different plant species and increases upon ERF transgene overexpression (Gutterson & Reuber, 2004;Champion et al, 2009;Sherif et al, 2012;Licausi et al, 2013;Cacas et al, 2017;Tripathi et al, 2019). One of the type III effectors from Xanthomonas euvesicatoria has been shown to directly downregulate the ERF transcription factor in Solanum lycopersicum to promote susceptibility (Kim et al, 2013).…”