Dataset Information

RNA sequencing of Malus x domestica Borkh. with Botrytis cinerea

ABSTRACT: 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.

ORGANISM(S): Botrytis cinerea Malus domestica

PROVIDER: GSE195841 | GEO | 2022/03/01

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Worldwide, 20-25% of all harvested fruit and vegetables are lost annually in the field and throughout the postharvest supply handling chain due to spoilage by fungal pathogens. Most impactful postharvest pathogens exhibit necrotrophic lifestyles, resulting in rotting of the host tissues and complete loss of marketable commodities. Necrotrophic fungi can readily infect ripe fruit leading to the rapid establishment of disease symptoms. However, these pathogens generally fail to infect unripe fruit, or remain quiescent until host and environmental conditions stimulate a successful infection. Current research on necrotrophic infections of fruit was mainly focused on the host by characterizing genetic and physicochemical factors that inhibit or promote the disease. However, the pathogenicity and virulence strategies employed by necrotrophic pathogens in ripe and unripe fruit are mostly understudied. Here, we provide a first comparative transcriptomics study of fungal postharvest pathogens: Botrytis cinerea, Rhizopus stolonifer and Fusarium acuminatum, all of which display necrotrophic behavior when infecting fruit. We de novo assembled and annotated the transcriptomes of R. stolonifer, and F. acuminatum and performed a differential gene expression analysis comparing the three fungal transcriptomes during fruit infection with that of fungal in-vitro growth. Analysis of the differentially expressed genes for enrichment of functional annotations revealed shared strategies of the three fungi during infection of compatible (ripe fruit) and incompatible (unripe fruit) hosts. We furthermore selected candidate genes that are involved in these strategies to characterize their expression during infection of unripe and ripe-like fruit of the non-ripening (nor) tomato mutant, both of which are physiologically and biochemically similar to unripe wildtype fruit. By enabling a better understanding of fungal necrotrophic infection strategies, we move closer to generating accurate models of fruit diseases and development of early detection tools and effective management strategies.

Dataset Information

RNA sequencing of Malus x domestica Borkh. with Botrytis cinerea

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