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Transcriptional profiling of watermelon during its incompatible interaction with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum

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Abstract

Transcriptome profiling of watermelon during its incompatible interactions with Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. niveum (FON) was performed using an Agilent custom microarray, which contains 15,000 probes representing approximately 8,200 watermelon genes. A total of 24, 275, 596, 598, and 592 genes showed significant differential expression in FON-infected plant roots, as compared with mock-inoculated roots, at 0.5, 1, 3, 5 and 8 days post inoculation (dpi), respectively. Bioinformatics analysis of these differentially expressed genes revealed that during the incompatible interaction between watermelon and FON, the expression of a number of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes, transcription factors, signalling/regulatory genes, and cell wall modification genes, was significantly induced. A number of genes for transporter proteins such as aquaporins were down-regulated, indicating that transporter proteins might contribute to the development of wilt symptoms after FON infection. In the incompatible interaction, most genes involved in biosynthesis of jasmonic acid (JA) were expressed stronger and more sustained than those in a compatible interaction in FON-infected tissues. Similarly, genes associated with shikimate-phenylpropanoid-lignin biosynthesis were also induced during the incompatible interaction, but expression of these genes were not changed or repressed in the compatible interaction. Those results demonstrate that JA biosynthesis and shikimate-phenylpropanoid-lignin pathways might play important roles in watermelon against FON infection and thus provides new insights in understanding the molecular basis and signalling network in watermelon plants in response to FON infection. We also performed confocal imaging of watermelon roots infected with the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged FON1 to revealed histological characteristics of the infection.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National High Technology Research and Development Program 863 (No.2010AA101907), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.30972015), the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System (No.CARS-26), National Public Benefit (Agricultural) Research Foundation of China (No.20090349-07), the Major Research Plan of Nature Science Foundation of Beijing (No.5100001), China International Science and Technology Cooperation Project (No.2010DFA54310), and 948 Ministry of Agriculture project (No.2008-Z42).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Haidian, Beijing , P.O. Box 2443, People’s Republic of China, 100097

    Guiyun Lü, Shaogui Guo, Haiying Zhang, Lihua Geng & Yong Xu

  2. Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, Hebei, 071001, China

    Guiyun Lü

  3. Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310029, China

    Fengming Song

  4. Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Zhangjun Fei

  5. USDA Robert Holley Center for Agriculture and Health, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Zhangjun Fei

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  1. Guiyun Lü
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  2. Shaogui Guo
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Correspondence to Zhangjun Fei or Yong Xu.

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Lü, G., Guo, S., Zhang, H. et al. Transcriptional profiling of watermelon during its incompatible interaction with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum . Eur J Plant Pathol 131, 585–601 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-011-9833-z

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