The β‐amylase genes: negative regulators of disease resistance for Verticillium dahliae

Abstract

Little is known about the role of plant primary metabolism in defence against pathogens. The present study is the first investigation published that examines the role of b-amylase (BAM) genes upon fungal, Verticillium dahliae, infection. The responses of Arabidopsis thaliana plants impaired in BAM1, BAM2, BAM3, BAM4 genes, along with double, triple and quadruple mutants of those genes, were used to explore the involvement of BAM in the host plant-V. dahliae interaction. Less severe symptoms were recorded in bam mutants compared to wild type. Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) revealed that the decrease in symptom severity shown in bam plants was correlated with reductions in the growth of the pathogen in the plants. Confocal microscopy of the most and least susceptible bam mutants and the wildtype plants showed that there were no differences between them in the number of attached conidia and penetration sites on the roots. BAM1, BAM2 and BAM3 expression was altered upon V. dahliae infection in the aerial tissues of the wild type. Analysis by qPCR of the PR1 and PDF1.2 expression in the bam3, bam1234, bam14 and wildtype plants showed that PR1 was up-regulated in the roots of bam plants upon V. dahliae infection.

Tolerance of olive (Olea europaea) cv Frantoio to Verticillium dahliae relies on both basal and pathogen‐induced differential transcriptomic responses

“…Gkizi et al . () have assigned a negative role for BAM genes in the partial resistance of A. thaliana plants against V. dahliae . Our results indicated that ‘Picual’ plants showed an overall induction of BAM unigenes upon infection with V. dahliae D pathotype, in contrast to ‘Frantoio’ plants in which their global expression remained unaltered.…”

Systemic responses in a tolerant olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivar upon root colonization by the vascular pathogen Verticillium dahliae

“…Finally, genes coding for β-amylases were also found in both libraries. These enzymes have been recently proposed as negative regulators in Arabidopsis partial resistance against V. dahliae (Gkizi et al, 2015 ). The role of detected olive elongation factors and β-amylases in the interaction olive- V. dahliae remains to be elucidated.…”

Genomic basis of European ash tree resistance to ash dieback fungus

“…FRAEX38873_v2_000086110 is a Leucine-rich repeat receptor-like serine/threonine-protein kinase β-amylase (BAM) 3, which is involved in fungal resistance in Arabidopsis 40 . Gene…”