Unraveling the Molecular Mechanisms of Tomatoes’ Defense against Botrytis cinerea: Insights from Transcriptome Analysis of Micro-Tom and Regular Tomato Varieties

Botrytis cinerea is a devastating fungal pathogen that causes severe economic losses in global tomato cultivation. Understanding the molecular mechanisms driving tomatoes’ response to this pathogen is crucial for developing effective strategies to counter it. Although the Micro-Tom (MT) cultivar has...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plants (Basel) 2023-08, Vol.12 (16), p.2965
Main Authors: Tian, Shifu, Liu, Bojing, Shen, Yanan, Cao, Shasha, Lai, Yinyan, Lu, Guodong, Wang, Zonghua, Wang, Airong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annotations
B. cinerea
Biological activity
Botrytis
Botrytis cinerea
Ca2
Calcium ions
Carbon
Comparative analysis
Cultivars
Cultivation
Detoxification
Diseases and pests
Economic impact
Environmental aspects
Fruit cultivation
Gene expression
Genes
Genetic aspects
Immune system
Infections
Metabolism
Micro-Tom
Molecular modelling
Pathogens
Phenotypes
Photosynthesis
Physiological aspects
Plant immunology
Plant resistance
Proteins
Signal transduction
tomato
Tomatoes
Transcription factors
transcriptome sequencing
Transcriptomes
Virulence
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Botrytis cinerea is a devastating fungal pathogen that causes severe economic losses in global tomato cultivation. Understanding the molecular mechanisms driving tomatoes’ response to this pathogen is crucial for developing effective strategies to counter it. Although the Micro-Tom (MT) cultivar has been used as a model, its stage-specific response to B. cinerea remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined the response of the MT and Ailsa Craig (AC) cultivars to B. cinerea at different time points (12–48 h post-infection (hpi)). Our results indicated that MT exhibited a stronger resistant phenotype at 18–24 hpi but became more susceptible to B. cinerea later (26–48 hpi) compared to AC. Transcriptome analysis revealed differential gene expression between MT at 24 hpi and AC at 22 hpi, with MT showing a greater number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Pathway and functional annotation analysis revealed significant differential gene expression in processes related to metabolism, biological regulation, detoxification, photosynthesis, and carbon metabolism, as well as some immune system-related genes. MT demonstrated an increased reliance on Ca2+ pathway-related proteins, such as CNGCs, CDPKs, and CaMCMLs, to resist B. cinerea invasion. B. cinerea infection induced the activation of PTI, ETI, and SA signaling pathways, involving the modulation of various genes such as FLS2, BAK1, CERK1, RPM, SGT1, and EDS1. Furthermore, transcription factors such as WRKY, MYB, NAC, and AUX/IAA families played crucial regulatory roles in tomatoes’ defense against B. cinerea. These findings provide valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying tomatoes’ defense against B. cinerea and offer potential strategies to enhance plant resistance.
ISSN:2223-7747
2223-7747
DOI:10.3390/plants12162965