Gene-to-Gene Network Analysis of the Mediation of Plant Innate Immunity by the Eliciting Plant Response-Like 1 (Epl1) Elicitor of Trichoderma formosa

Abstract

A new clade, Trichoderma formosa, secretes eliciting plant response-like 1 (Epl1), a small peptide elicitor that stimulates plant immunity. Nicotiana benthamiana pretreated with Epl1 for 3 days developed immunity against Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) infection. The transcriptome profiles of T. formosa and N. benthamiana were obtained by deep sequencing; the transcript of Epl1 is 736 nt in length and encodes a 12-kDa peptide. Identifying critical genes in Epl1-mediated immunity was challenging due to high similarity between the transcriptome expression profiles of Epl1-treated and ToMV-infected N. benthamiana samples. Therefore, an efficient bioinformatics data mining approach was used for high-throughput transcriptomic assays in this study. We integrated gene-to-gene network analysis into the ContigViews transcriptome database, and genes related to jasmonic acid and ethylene signaling, salicylic acid signaling, leucine-rich repeats, transcription factors, and histone variants were hubs in the gene-to-gene networks. In this study, the Epl1 of T. formosa triggers plant immunity against various pathogen infections. Moreover, we demonstrated that high-throughput data mining and gene-to-gene network analysis can be used to identify critical candidate genes for further studies on the mechanisms of plant immunity.

Compounds Released by the Biocontrol Yeast Hanseniaspora opuntiae Protect Plants Against Corynespora cassiicola and Botrytis cinerea

“…Using genetic, molecular and omics tools applied on different plant models, including Arabidopsis thaliana , plant-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions, have been characterized at the molecular level (Kroll et al, 2017 ). In the plants, this characterization includes, the analysis of the early events during the beneficial and pathogenic interactions (Zipfel and Oldroyd, 2017 ), the transcriptional regulation of plant defense responses (Birkenbihl et al, 2017 ) and the elicitor-mediated activation of plant immunity (Cheng et al, 2018 ). On the other hand, the molecular analysis of the pathogens Corynespora cassiicola and Botrytis cinerea also has also been improved with the identification of the genomic sequence and the transcriptomic characterization during the interaction with the plants (Windram et al, 2012 ; Shrestha et al, 2017 ; Van Kan et al, 2017 ).…”

Cloning and expression of the EsxA gene and the growth-promoting effects of the encoded protein on rice seedlings

“…The mechanisms by which elicitors promote plant growth are complex. In response to an elicitor, plant growth and metabolism may be affected via the cross-talk among different signaling pathways (e.g., cross-talk between the elicitor and jasmonate and between jasmonate and ethylene signaling pathways) and the interactions between these pathways and ROS as well as the integration of multiple signaling pathways and transcription factors (Cheng et al 2018 ). These signaling components are connected in an elicitor signaling network and transduce elicitor signals at the transcriptional and metabolic levels, thereby influencing plant secondary metabolism to further regulate plant growth (Zhao et al 2005 ; Cheplick et al 2018 ).…”

Cloning and Expression of the EsxA Gene and Analysis of the Growth-Promoting Effects of the Encoded Protein on Rice Seedlings

“…The mechanisms by which elicitors promote plant growth are complex. In response to an elicitor, plant growth and metabolism may be affected via the cross-talk among different signaling pathways (e.g., cross-talk between the elicitor and jasmonate and between jasmonate and ethylene signaling pathways) and the interactions between these pathways and ROS as well as the integration of multiple signaling pathways and transcription factors (Cheng et al 2018).…”