Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of Autophagy-Related Genes in Response to Top-Rot Disease.

Autophagy is a highly conserved process in eukaryotes that degrades and recycles damaged cells in plants and is involved in plant growth, development, senescence, and resistance to external stress. Top-rot disease (TRD) in fruits caused by often leads to huge yield losses. However, little information is available about the autophagy underlying the defense response to TRD. Here, we identified a total of 40 autophagy-related genes (), which were highly homologous to . Transcriptomic data show that were involved in the development and ripening processes of fruits. Gene expression patterns in fruits with different degrees of TRD occurrence suggest that several members of the RrATGs family responded to TRD, of which was significantly up-regulated at the initial infection stage of . Furthermore, exogenous calcium (Ca) significantly promoted the mRNA accumulation of and fruit resistance to TRD, suggesting that this gene might be involved in the calcium-mediated TRD defense response. This study provided a better understanding of autophagy-related genes and their potential roles in disease resistance.