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Differentially-regulated defence genes in Malus domestica during phytoplasma infection and recovery

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Abstract

To improve knowledge about plant/phytoplasma interactions and, in particular, about the ‘recovery’ phenomenon in previously-infected plants, we investigated and compared expression levels of several defence-related genes (four pathogenesis-related proteins and three jasmonate-pathway marker enzymes) in apple plants showing different states of health: vigorous (healthy), phytoplasma-infected, and recovered. Real Time-PCR analyses demonstrated that genes are differentially expressed in apple leaf tissue according to the plants’ state of health. Malus domestica Pathogenesis-Related protein (MdPR) 1, MdPR 2 and MdPR 5 were significantly induced in leaves of diseased and symptomatic plants compared to leaves of those plants that were healthy or recovered. On the other hand, levels of all the jasmonate (JA)-pathway marker genes that we selected for this study, were up-regulated in the leaves of recovered plants compared to the diseased ones. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that two different sets of defence genes are involved in the interactions between apple plants and ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ (‘Ca. P. mali’) and that these genes are differentially expressed during phytoplasma infection or recovery.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to Dr Eleanor Callanan, University of Udine, for critical reading of the manuscript and for English revision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, Università di Udine, via delle Scienze, 208, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Rita Musetti, Khaled Farhan, Federica De Marco, Rachele Polizzotto, Paolo Ermacora, Simone Grisan, Simonetta Santi & Ruggero Osler

  2. Dipartimento di Agrobiologia e Agrochimica, Università della Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo, Italy

    Annarita Paolacci & Mario Ciaffi

Authors
  1. Rita Musetti
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  2. Khaled Farhan
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  3. Federica De Marco
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  4. Rachele Polizzotto
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  5. Annarita Paolacci
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  6. Mario Ciaffi
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  7. Paolo Ermacora
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  8. Simone Grisan
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  9. Simonetta Santi
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  10. Ruggero Osler
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Correspondence to Rita Musetti.

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Musetti, R., Farhan, K., De Marco, F. et al. Differentially-regulated defence genes in Malus domestica during phytoplasma infection and recovery. Eur J Plant Pathol 136, 13–19 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-012-0147-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-012-0147-6

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