Transcriptome Characterization and Gene Changes Induced by Fusarium solani in Sweetpotato Roots

Abstract

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) is an important root crop that is infected by Fusarium solani in both seedling and root stages, causing irregular black or brown disease spots and root rot and canker. This study aims to use RNA sequencing technology to investigate the dynamic changes in root transcriptome profiles between control check and roots at 6 h, 24 h, 3 days, and 5 days post-inoculation (hpi/dpi) with F. solani. The results showed that the defense reaction of sweetpotato could be divided into an early step (6 and 24 hpi) without symptoms and a late step to respond to F. solani infection (3 and 5 dpi). The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in response to F. solani infection were enriched in the cellular component, biological process, and molecular function, with more DEGs in the biological process and molecular function than in the cellular component. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that the main pathways were metabolic pathways, the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and carbon metabolism. More downregulated genes were identified than upregulated genes in the plant–pathogen interaction and transcription factors, which might be related to the degree of host resistance to F. solani. The findings of this study provide an important basis to further characterize the complex mechanisms of sweetpotato resistance against biotic stress and identify new candidate genes for increasing the resistance of sweetpotato.

A comprehensive overview of omics-based approaches to enhance biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in sweet potato

“…Different studies were conducted to identify the key genes involved in disease resistance as well as genes induced by other pathogens in sweet potatoes. The RNA sequencing technology was used to investigate the dynamic changes in root transcriptome profiles at different root development stages after infection with Fusarium solani and identified several candidate genes related to plant-pathogen interaction and TFs that could be used to increase the biotic resistance in sweet potato [ 118 ]. De novo transcriptome assembly and digital gene expression profile of sweet potato identified various differentially expressed genes during defense, such as chitin elicitor receptor kinase-1, MAPK, NAC, WRKY, MYB, ERF TFs, as well as resistance, pathogenesis, SA and JA signaling pathways related genes against Fusarium wilt [ 119 ].…”

Genome-wide association study to identify novel loci and genes for Fusarium root rot resistance in sweet potato using genotyping-by-sequencing

“…Although only one QTL mapping study was conducted to identify the QTL for Fusarium root rot resistance with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for F 1 populations, a few QTL were identified but remained unverified because of the lack of related data and the small number of markers (n = 300) ( Ma et al., 2020 ). Recently, transcriptome analysis for sweet potato roots infected by F. solani showed that the number of upregulated genes was lower than that of downregulated genes such as calcium-binding protein, and many homologous genes, including 43 WRKY genes and 57 genes from the MYB family of proteins, were differently or inconsistently expressed, suggesting that genetic studies in sweet potatoes are challenging ( Zhang et al., 2023 ).…”