Project description:Apple is typically stored under low temperature and controlled atmospheric conditions to ensure a year round supply of high quality fruit for the consumer. During storage, losses in quality and quantity occur due to spoilage by postharvest pathogens. One important postharvest pathogen of apple is Botrytis cinerea. The fungus is a broad host necrotroph with a large arsenal of infection strategies able to infect over 1,400 different plant species. We studied the apple-B. cinerea interaction to get a better understanding of the defense response in apple. We conducted an RNAseq experiment in which the transcriptome of inoculated and non-inoculated (control and mock) apples was analyzed at 0, 1, 12 and 28 h post inoculation. Our results show extensive reprogramming of the apple's transcriptome with about 28.9 % of expressed genes exhibiting significant differential regulation in the inoculated samples. We demonstrate the transcriptional activation of pathogen-triggered immunity and a reprogramming of the fruit’s metabolism. We demonstrate a clear transcriptional activation of secondary metabolism and a correlation between the early transcriptional activation of the mevalonate pathway and reduced susceptibility, expressed as a reduction in resulting lesion diameters. This pathway produces the building blocks for terpenoids, a large class of compounds with diverging functions including defense. 1-MCP and hot water dip treatment are used to further evidence the key role of terpenoids in the defense and demonstrate that ethylene modulates this response.
Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis between long-term in vitro shoot culture and acclimatized apple plants DNA methylation is a process of epigenetic modification that can alter the functionality of a genome. Using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, this study quantify the level of DNA methylation in the epigenomes of two diploid apple (Malus x domestica) scion cultivars ('McIntosh' and 'Húsvéti rozmaring') derived from three environmental conditions: in vivo mother plants in an orchard, in vitro culture, and acclimatized in vitro plants. The global DNA methylation levels were not dependent on the source of plant material. Significant differences in DNA methylation were identified in 586 out of 45,116 genes, including promoter and coding sequences, and classified as differentially methylated genes (DMGs). Differential methylation was visualised by an MA plot and functional genomic maps were established for biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components. Considering the DMGs, in vitro tissue culture resulted in the highest level of methylation, which decreased after acclimatization and tended to be similar to that in the mother tree. Methylation patterns of the two scions differed, indicating cultivar-specific epigenetic regulation of gene expression during adaptation to various environments. After selecting genes that displayed differences larger than ±10% in CpG and CHG contexts, or larger than ±1.35% in the CHH context from among the DMGs, they were annotated in Blast2GO v5.1.12 for Gene Ontology. These DNA methylation results suggest that epigenetic changes may contribute to the adaptation of apple to environmental changes by modifying gene expression.
Project description:Apple pedicel vascular development array Twelvet apple samples. Biological replicates: 2 for each sample, independently grown and harvested.
Project description:Apple leaf spot caused by the Alternaria alternata f. sp. mali (ALT1) fungus is one of the most devastating diseases of apple (Malus × domestica). We identified a hairpin RNA (hpRNA)-mediated small RNAs, MdhpRNA277, from apple (cv. ‘Golden Delicious’) that is induced by infection with ALT1. MdhpRNA277 produces mdm-siR277-1 and mdm-siR277-2, which target five R genes, MdRNL1, MdRNL2, MdRNL3, MdRNL4, and MdRNL5, that are expressed at high levels in the resistant apple variety ‘Hanfu’ and at low levels in the susceptible variety ‘Golden Delicious’ following ALT1 infection. MdhpRNA277 is strongly induced in ‘Golden Delicious’ but was not induced in ‘Hanfu’ following ALT1 inoculation. The promoter activity of MdhpRNA277 was much stronger in ‘Golden Delicious’ than in ‘Hanfu’ after ALT1 inoculation. We identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the MdhpRNA277 promoter region between the susceptible variety ‘Golden Delicious’ (pMdhpRNA277-GD) and resistant variety ‘Hanfu’ (pMdhpRNA277-HF). The transcription factor MdWHy binds to pMdhpRNA277-GD, but not to pMdhpRNA277-HF. Transgenic ‘GL-3’ apple lines expressing pMdhpRNA277-GD: MdhpRNA277 were more susceptible to ALT1 infection than were those expressing pMdhpRNA277-HF:MdhpRNA277 due to induced mdm-siR277 accumulation and low levels of expression of the five target R genes. The failure of MdWHy to bind to pMdhpRNA277-HF might contribute to the low levels of MdhpRNA277 and mdm-siR277-1/-2 expression and the high levels of R gene expression and resistance to Alternaria leaf spot in resistant apple varieties. We confirmed that the SNP in pMdhpRNA277 is associated with Alternaria leaf spot resistance by analyzing the progeny of three additional crosses. The SNP identified in this study could be used as a marker to distinguish between apple varieties that are resistant or susceptible to Alternaria leaf spot.