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RNA-Seq analysis of resistant and susceptible sub-tropical maize lines reveals a role for kauralexins in resistance to grey leaf spot disease, caused by Cercospora zeina.

ABSTRACT: Cercospora zeina is a foliar pathogen responsible for maize grey leaf spot in southern Africa that negatively impacts maize production. Plants use a variety of chemical and structural mechanisms to defend themselves against invading pathogens such as C. zeina, including the production of secondary metabolites with antimicrobial properties. In maize, a variety of biotic and abiotic stressors induce the accumulation of the terpenoid phytoalexins, zealexins and kauralexins.C. zeina-susceptible line displayed pervasive rectangular grey leaf spot lesions, running parallel with the leaf veins in contrast to C. zeina-resistant line that had restricted disease symptoms. Analysis of the transcriptome of both lines indicated that genes involved in primary and secondary metabolism were up-regualted, and although different pathways were prioritized in each line, production of terpenoid compounds were common to both. Targeted phytoalexin analysis revealed that C. zeina-inoculated leaves accumulated zealexins and kauralexins. The resistant line shows a propensity toward accumulation of the kauralexin B series metabolites in response to infection, which contrasts with the susceptible line that preferentially accumulates the kauralexin A series. Kauralexin accumulation was correlated to expression of the kauralexin biosynthetic gene, ZmAn2 and a candidate biosynthetic gene, ZmKSL2. We report the expression of a putative copalyl diphosphate synthase gene that is induced by C. zeina in the resistant line exclusively.This study shows that zealexins and kauralexins, and expression of their biosynthetic genes, are induced by C. zeina in both resistant and susceptible germplasm adapted to the southern African climate. The data presented here indicates that different forms of kauralexins accumulate in the resistant and susceptible maize lines in response to C. zeina, with the accumulation of kauralexin B compounds in a resistant maize line and kauralexin A compounds accumulating in the susceptible line.

SUBMITTER: Meyer J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5683525 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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RNA-Seq analysis of resistant and susceptible sub-tropical maize lines reveals a role for kauralexins in resistance to grey leaf spot disease, caused by Cercospora zeina.

Meyer Jacqueline J Berger Dave K DK Christensen Shawn A SA Murray Shane L SL

BMC plant biology 20171113 1

<h4>Background</h4>Cercospora zeina is a foliar pathogen responsible for maize grey leaf spot in southern Africa that negatively impacts maize production. Plants use a variety of chemical and structural mechanisms to defend themselves against invading pathogens such as C. zeina, including the production of secondary metabolites with antimicrobial properties. In maize, a variety of biotic and abiotic stressors induce the accumulation of the terpenoid phytoalexins, zealexins and kauralexins.<h4>Re ...[more]

PMID: 29132306

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Gray leaf spot (GLS) is a globally important foliar disease of maize. Cercospora zeina, one of the two fungal species that cause the disease, is prevalent in southern Africa, China, Brazil and the eastern corn belt of the USA. Identification of QTL for GLS resistance in subtropical germplasm is important to support breeding programmes in developing countries where C.?zeina limits production of this staple food crop. RESULTS: A maize RIL population (F7:S6) from a cross between CML444 and SC Malawi was field-tested under GLS disease pressure at five field sites over three seasons in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Thirty QTL identified from eleven field trials (environments) were consolidated to seven QTL for GLS resistance based on their expression in at least two environments and location in the same core maize bins. Four GLS resistance alleles were derived from the more resistant parent CML444 (bin 1.10, 4.08, 9.04/9.05, 10.06/10.07), whereas the remainder were from SC Malawi (bin 6.06/6.07, 7.02/7.03, 9.06). QTLs in bin 4.08 and bin 6.06/6.07 were also detected as joint QTLs, each explained more than 11% of the phenotypic variation, and were identified in four and seven environments, respectively. Common markers were used to allocate GLS QTL from eleven previous studies to bins on the IBM2005 map, and GLS QTL "hotspots" were noted. Bin 4.08 and 7.02/7.03 GLS QTL from this study overlapped with hotspots, whereas the bin 6.06/6.07 and bin 9.06 QTLs appeared to be unique. QTL for flowering time (bin 1.07, 4.09) in this population did not correspond to QTL for GLS resistance. CONCLUSIONS: QTL mapping of a RIL population from the subtropical maize parents CML444 and SC Malawi identified seven QTL for resistance to gray leaf spot disease caused by C.?zeina. These QTL together with QTL from eleven studies were allocated to bins on the IBM2005 map to provide a basis for comparison. Hotspots of GLS QTL were identified on chromosomes one, two, four, five and seven, with QTL in the current study overlapping with two of these. Two QTL from this study did not overlap with previously reported QTL.

Dataset Information

RNA-Seq analysis of resistant and susceptible sub-tropical maize lines reveals a role for kauralexins in resistance to grey leaf spot disease, caused by Cercospora zeina.

Publications

RNA-Seq analysis of resistant and susceptible sub-tropical maize lines reveals a role for kauralexins in resistance to grey leaf spot disease, caused by Cercospora zeina.

Similar Datasets

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