Project description:This experiment was designed to study the interactions between Medicago truncatula and the charcoal rot pathogen Macrophomina phaeolina. Two-week-old plants grown in Magenta boxes supplied with 1/2 MS salt and 1% sucrose were inoculated with M. phaseolina covered wheat seeds, and roots were harvested at 24, 36 and 48 hours after inoculation. Control plants were mock inoculated with a sterile wheat seed, and roots were harvest 24 hours later. Pooled RNAs were used in the array experiment using Affymetrix GeneChip(r) Medicago Genome Array.
Project description:Macrophomina phaseolina is a global devastating necrotrophic fungal pathogen. It causes charcoal rot disease in more than 500 host plants. It is essential to understand the host microbe interaction and the diseases pathogenesis which can ensure global agricultural crop production and security. An array of virulence factors of M. phaseolina were identified which were found to be involved in pathogenesis of other plant pathogenic fungi also. In conclusion the present study has provided a better understanding of how necrotrophic fungi M. phaseolina modulates host plant defensive processes.
