Transcriptomics Analysis of Wheat Tassel Response to Tilletia laevis Kühn, Which Causes Common Bunt of Wheat

Abstract

Tilletia laevis Kühn [synonym T. foetida (Wallr.) Liro] can lead to a wheat common bunt, which is one of the most serious diseases affecting kernels, a serious reduction in grain yield, and losses can reach up to 80% in favorable environments. To understand how wheat tassels respond to T. laevis, based on an RNA-Seq technology, we analyzed a host transcript accumulation on healthy wheat tassels and on tassels infected by the pathogen. Our results showed that 7,767 out of 15,658 genes were upregulated and 7,891 out of 15,658 genes were downregulated in wheat tassels. Subsequent gene ontology (GO) showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are predominantly involved in biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions. Additionally, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that 20 pathways were expressed significantly during the infection of wheat with T. laevis, while biosynthesis of amino acids, carbon metabolism, and starch and sucrose metabolism pathways were more highly expressed. Our findings also demonstrated that genes involved in defense mechanisms and myeloblastosis (MYB) transcription factor families were mostly upregulated, and the RNA-seq results were validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). This is the first report on transcriptomics analysis of wheat tassels in response to T. laevis, which will contribute to understanding the interaction of T. laevis and wheat, and may provide higher efficiency control strategies, including developing new methods to increase the resistance of wheat crops to T. laevis-caused wheat common bunt.

WeCoNET: a host–pathogen interactome database for deciphering crucial molecular networks of wheat-common bunt cross-talk mechanisms

“…The functional analysis of the above-mentioned host–pathogen PPI pair shows it to be a candidate pair for experimental validation, thus confirming the viability of the database. Furthermore, based on a recent transcriptome analysis on wheat tassel [ 44 ], we found a few more potential PPI pairs in which the wheat genes show up- or down-regulation during the common bunt infection. These PPI pairs are available in Additional file 1 .…”

Kernel Transcriptome Profiles of Susceptible Wheat Genotypes in Response to Wheat Dwarf Bunt

“…Under an automated inverted fluorescence microscope (IX83, Olympus, Tokyo, Japan), teliospore germination and hyphal development could be seen after being parafilm-covered for 60 days. The hyphae were collected, combined with distilled water, and used to inoculate wheat at a concentration of 10 6 spores per milliliter with an OD 600 of 0.15 [18].…”

“…The wheat spikes were injected with 1 mL teliospore suspensions during the early boot stage, while the spikes were still covered by the leaf sheaths. The inoculation procedure was performed three times with a one-day interval [18]. Meanwhile, the control treatment samples received the same amount of sterile water, and were raised under identical circumstances.…”

“…When the pathogen infects the plant, the plant will produce a series of defense responses in order to resist the invasion of the pathogen, such as modification of plant cell walls [14], release of reactive oxygen species [15], production of secondary metabolites [16], and production of pathogenesis-related proteins [17]. These defense responses are associated with disease-causing genes and transcription factors [18]. With the advancement of molecular biological technology, various omics, such as transcriptomics, are widely used in the study of plant-pathogen interaction and gene function.…”