Expression profiling of the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici reveals genomic patterns of transcription and host-specific regulatory programs.

ABSTRACT: Host specialization by pathogens requires a repertoire of virulence factors as well as fine-tuned regulation of gene expression. The fungal wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici (synonym Mycosphaerella graminicola) is a powerful model system for the discovery of genetic elements that underlie virulence and host specialization. We transcriptionally profiled the early stages of Z. tritici infection of a compatible host (wheat) and a noncompatible host (Brachypodium distachyon). The results revealed infection regulatory programs common to both hosts and genes with striking wheat-specific expression, with many of the latter showing sequence signatures of positive selection along the Z. tritici lineage. Genes specifically regulated during infection of wheat populated two large clusters of coregul

SUBMITTER: Kellner R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4079195 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature