Puccinia triticina pathotypes-THTT and THTS display complex transcript profiles on Thatcher

Abstract

Background: Wheat leaf rust is an important disease worldwide. Understanding the Puccinia triticina (Pt) pathogenic molecular mechanism and inconstant toxic region are highly important for managing the disease. The present study aimed to analyze pathogenic divergences between Pt isolates. Results: Total RNA was extracted from Thatcher infected by two Pt isolates, Tc361_1 (THTT) and Tc284_2 (THTS) at 144 hours post inoculation (hpi). The mRNA then was harvested and sequenced. Results indicated that a total of 2,784 differential expressed genes (DEGs) were detected. Forty-five of genes were specifically expressed in Tc361_1 including transcription initiation factor, transmembrane transporter activity and so on, while 26 of genes were specially expressed in Tc284_2 including GTPase activity, ABC transporter and so on. Sixty-seven differential expressed candidate effectors were screened. qRT-PCR of 14 significantly different expressed genes were carried out to prove that the results of RNA-seq is similar to that of qRT-PCR at 144 hpi and show their expression level in the early stage and the difference between two Pt pathotypes, which revealed the complex transcript profiles. Conclusion: The results obtained in this study might have a solid foundation for the future studies on clarifying the mechanism of pathogenicity differences of Chinese isolates and pathogenic mechanism of Pt.