Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
BMC Genomics. 2019 Feb 26;20(1):157. doi: 10.1186/s12864-019-5517-4.
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a broad-host range necrotrophic pathogen which is the causative agent of Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR), and a major disease of soybean (Glycine max). A time course transcriptomic analysis was performed in both compatible and incompatible soybean lines to identify pathogenicity and developmental factors utilized by S. sclerotiorum to achieve pathogenic success.
A comparison of genes expressed during early infection identified the potential importance of toxin efflux and nitrogen metabolism during the early stages of disease establishment. The later stages of infection were characterized by an apparent shift to survival structure formation. Analysis of genes highly upregulated in-planta revealed a temporal regulation of hydrolytic and detoxification enzymes, putative secreted effectors, and secondary metabolite synthesis genes. Redox regulation also appears to play a key role during the course of infection, as suggested by the high expression of genes involved in reactive oxygen species production and scavenging. Finally, distinct differences in early gene expression were noted based on the comparison of S. sclerotiorum infection of resistant and susceptible soybean lines.
Although many potential virulence factors have been noted in the S. sclerotiorum pathosystem, this study serves to highlight soybean specific processes most likely to be critical in successful infection. Functional studies of genes identified in this work are needed to confirm their importance to disease development, and may constitute valuable targets of RNAi approaches to improve resistance to SSR.
核盘菌是一种广谱专性坏死性病原菌，是核盘菌茎腐病（SSR）的病原体，也是大豆（Glycine max）的主要病害。对亲和和不亲和大豆品系进行了时间过程转录组分析，以鉴定核盘菌实现致病成功所利用的致病性和发育因素。
比较早期感染过程中表达的基因，发现毒素外排和氮代谢在疾病建立的早期阶段可能很重要。感染的后期阶段以明显的生存结构形成特征为特征。在植物体内高度上调的基因分析表明，水解和解毒酶、假定的分泌效应子和次生代谢物合成基因存在时间调节。氧化还原调节在感染过程中似乎也起着关键作用，这表明与活性氧产生和清除有关的基因表达较高。最后，根据核盘菌感染抗性和敏感性大豆品系的早期基因表达比较，注意到了早期基因表达的明显差异。
尽管在核盘菌病理系统中已经注意到许多潜在的毒力因子，但本研究旨在强调在成功感染中最可能至关重要的大豆特异性过程。需要对本工作中鉴定的基因进行功能研究，以确认它们对疾病发展的重要性，并且可能成为提高 SSR 抗性的 RNAi 方法的有价值的靶标。
