Identification of Genes Involved in the Response of Banana to Crown Rot Disease

Abstract

Variations in banana susceptibility to crown rot disease have been observed but the molecular mechanisms underlying these quantitative host-pathogen relationships are still unknown. This study was designed to compare gene expression between crowns of banana fruit showing a high susceptibility (S + ) and crowns showing a low susceptibility (S -) to the disease. Comparisons were performed at two situation times: i) between crowns (S + and S -) collected 1 h before inoculation and ii) between crowns (S + and S -) collected 13 days after inoculation. Gene expression comparisons were performed with cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and results were confirmed by realtime reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Among genes identified as differentially expressed between S + and S -crowns, two were involved in signal transduction, three in proteolytic machinery, two had similarity to pathogenesis-related protein 14, one to a CCR4-associated factor protein, and one to a cellulose synthase. Paradoxically, the overexpression of the cellulose synthase gene was associated with banana showing a high susceptibility in both preand post-inoculation situations. Finally, the cDNA-AFLP identified a gene that seems to be associated with the quantitative banana responses to crown rot disease; this gene encodes a dopamine-β-monooxygenase, which is involved in the catecholamine pathway. To our knowledge, this work is the first to address both pre-and post-infection gene expression with the same host-pathogen combination and distinct susceptibility levels.

De Novo characterization of the banana root transcriptome and analysis of gene expression under Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense tropical race 4 infection

“…Understanding the underlying changes during this interaction would allow for the identification of signal transduction pathways affected by infection and the interaction mechanisms during infection, which can lead to improvement of disease resistance of the banana plants. Traditional genome-wide analysis of gene expression of organisms under different conditions or, in the case of pathogens, at different life cycle stages, has mainly been carried out by microarrays, suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH), and cDNA-AFLP methods [9-12]. Van den Berg et al .…”

Sustainable Horticultural Systems

“…Delgado et al (2003) also evidenced that reduction in cellulose synthesis leads to activation of defense responsive genes through various signalling pathways. Identification of differentially expressed genes like dopamine-monooxygenase, which play a key role in catecholamine biosynthesis pathway, suggested the possible involvement of these genes in resistance mechanism (Lassois et al 2011). …”

Severe modifications in source‐sink ratio influence the susceptibility of bananas to crown rot and its phenolics content

“…For this, we have first characterized the effect of a very broad range of So‐Si ratio modifications on variations of susceptibility to crown rot disease. The objective was to select the most extreme situation for both susceptible (S+) and less susceptible (S−) fruits, exploring a broader range of So‐Si ratios than former studies (Lassois et al ., 2010a, 2010b, 2011). In a second step, preformed (preinoculation) and induced (postinoculation) phenolics were analysed in the crowns of both extreme situations (S+ and S−) using HPLC and LC‐MS in order to identify phenolic compounds associated with a lower susceptibility to crown rot disease.…”