Project description:Head smut of maize, which is caused by the Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. Zeae (Kühn), has been a serious disease in maize. In order to find head smut resistant candidate genes, microarrays were used to monitor the gene expression profiles between disease resistant near isogenic lines (NIL) L282 and L43, highly resistant inbred line Q319 and highly susceptible inbred line Huangzao4 after 0 to7 days post inoculation of S.reiliana by artificial inoculation method.
Project description:Head smut of maize, which is caused by the Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. Zeae (Kühn), has been a serious disease in maize. In order to find head smut resistant candidate genes, microarrays were used to monitor the gene expression profiles between disease resistant near isogenic lines (NIL) L282 and L43, highly resistant inbred line Q319 and highly susceptible inbred line Huangzao4 after 0 to7 days post inoculation of S.reiliana by artificial inoculation method. Maize leaves were selected at 0d, 1d, 2d, 4d, 7d post inoculation for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to obtain different expression genes of different varieties at each inoculation stage in order to find head smut resistant candidate genes.
Project description:The maize smut fungus, Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. zeae, which is an important biotrophic pathogen responsible for extensive crop losses, infects maize by invading the root during the early seedling stage. In order to investigate disease-resistance mechanisms at this early seedling stage, digital gene expression (DGE) analysis, which applies a dual-enzyme approach (DpnII and NlaIII), was used to identify the transcriptional changes in roots of Huangzao4 (susceptible) and Mo17 (resistant) after inoculation with teliospores of S. reilianum. Before and after inoculation, pathogenesis-related genes were differentially regulated and enzymes involved in controlling reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels showed different activity between Huangzao4 and Mo17, which can potentially lead to changes in the growth of S. reilianum and ROS production in maize. Moreover, lignin depositions of roots were also changed differentially during root colonization of hyphae between Huangzao4 and Mo17. These results suggest that the interplays between S. reilianum and maize during the early infection stage involve many interesting transcriptional and physiological changes, which offer several novel insights for understanding the mechanisms of resistance to the fungal infection.
Project description:The maize smut fungus, Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. zeae, which is an important biotrophic pathogen responsible for extensive crop losses, infects maize by invading the root during the early seedling stage. In order to investigate disease-resistance mechanisms at this early seedling stage, digital gene expression (DGE) analysis, which applies a dual-enzyme approach (DpnII and NlaIII), was used to identify the transcriptional changes in roots of Huangzao4 (susceptible) and Mo17 (resistant) after inoculation with teliospores of S. reilianum. Before and after inoculation, pathogenesis-related genes were differentially regulated and enzymes involved in controlling reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels showed different activity between Huangzao4 and Mo17, which can potentially lead to changes in the growth of S. reilianum and ROS production in maize. Moreover, lignin depositions of roots were also changed differentially during root colonization of hyphae between Huangzao4 and Mo17. These results suggest that the interplays between S. reilianum and maize during the early infection stage involve many interesting transcriptional and physiological changes, which offer several novel insights for understanding the mechanisms of resistance to the fungal infection. Examination of control stage (ck), post-inoculation stage1 (P1) and post-inoculation stage2 (P2) in Huangzao4 (susceptible) and Mo17 (resistant)
Project description:Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. zeae is an important biotrophic pathogen that causes head smut disease in maize. Head smut is not obvious until the tassels and ears emerge. S. reilianum has a very long life cycle that spans almost the entire developmental program of maize after the pathogen successfully invades the root. The aim of this study was to understand at a molecular level how this pathogen interacts with the host during its long life cycle, and how this interaction differs between susceptible and resistant varieties of maize after hyphal invasion. We investigated transcriptional changes in the resistant maize line Mo17 at four developmental stages using a maize 70mer-oligonucleotide microarray. We found that there was a lengthy compatible relationship between the pathogen and host until the early 8th-leaf stage. The resistance in Mo17 relied on the assignment of auxins and regulation of flavonoids in the early floral primordium during the early floral transition stage. We propose a model describing the putative mechanism of head smut resistance in Mo17 during floral transition. In the model, the synergistic regulations among auxins, flavonoids, and hyphal growth play a key role in maintaining compatibility with S. reilianum in the resistant maize line