Yuan Jiazheng, Zhu Mengxia, Lightfoot David A, Iqbal M Javed, Yang Jack Y, Meksem Khalid
Department of Plant, Soil Sciences and Agriculture System, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA.
BMC Genomics. 2008 Sep 16;9 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S6. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-9-S2-S6.
Sudden death syndrome (SDS) of soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) is an economically important disease, caused by the semi-biotrophic fungus Fusarium solani f. sp. glycines, recently renamed Fusarium virguliforme (Fv). Due to the complexity and length of the soybean-Fusarium interaction, the molecular mechanisms underlying plant resistance and susceptibility to the pathogen are not fully understood. F. virguliforme has a very wide host range for the ability to cause root rot and a very narrow host range for the ability to cause a leaf scorch. Arabidopsis thaliana is a host for many types of phytopathogens including bacteria, fungi, viruses and nematodes. Deciphering the variations among transcript abundances (TAs) of functional orthologous genes of soybean and A. thaliana involved in the interaction will provide insights into plant resistance to F. viguliforme.
In this study, we reported the analyses of microarrays measuring TA in whole plants after A. thaliana cv 'Columbia' was challenged with fungal pathogen F. virguliforme. Infection caused significant variations in TAs. The total number of increased transcripts was nearly four times more than that of decreased transcripts in abundance. A putative resistance pathway involved in responding to the pathogen infection in A. thaliana was identified and compared to that reported in soybean.
Microarray experiments allow the interrogation of tens of thousands of transcripts simultaneously and thus, the identification of plant pathways is likely to be involved in plant resistance to Fusarial pathogens. Dissection of the set functional orthologous genes between soybean and A. thaliana enabled a broad view of the functional relationships and molecular interactions among plant genes involved in F. virguliforme resistance.
大豆猝死综合征（SDS）是一种具有重要经济影响的病害，由半活体营养型真菌大豆镰刀菌[Fusarium solani f. sp. glycines，最近重新命名为镰孢菌（Fusarium virguliforme，Fv）]引起。由于大豆与镰刀菌相互作用的复杂性和长期性，植物对该病原菌的抗性和感病性的分子机制尚未完全清楚。镰孢菌具有非常广泛的引起根腐病的寄主范围，但引起叶焦病的寄主范围却非常狭窄。拟南芥是包括细菌、真菌、病毒和线虫在内的多种植物病原体的寄主。解析大豆和拟南芥中参与相互作用的功能直系同源基因转录丰度（TA）的差异，将有助于深入了解植物对镰孢菌的抗性。
在本研究中，我们报道了用真菌病原体镰孢菌对拟南芥品种‘哥伦比亚’进行挑战后，对全株TA进行微阵列分析的结果。感染导致TA发生显著变化。转录本丰度增加的总数几乎是减少的总数的四倍。鉴定了拟南芥中一条可能参与响应病原体感染的抗性途径，并与大豆中报道的途径进行了比较。
微阵列实验能够同时检测数万个转录本，因此，鉴定出的植物途径可能参与植物对镰刀菌病原体的抗性。剖析大豆和拟南芥之间的功能直系同源基因集，能够全面了解参与镰孢菌抗性的植物基因之间的功能关系和分子相互作用。
