AUTHOR=Peng Rong , Sun Sheng , Li Na , Kong Lingjuan , Chen Zhifeng , Wang Peng , Xu Lurong , Wang Hehe , Geng Xueqing 

TITLE=Physiological and transcriptome profiling revealed defense networks during Cladosporium fulvum and tomato interaction at the early stage

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.1085395

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2022.1085395

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Tomato leaf mold caused by <italic>Cladosporium fulvum</italic> (<italic>C. fulvum</italic>) is a serious fungal disease which results in huge yield losses in tomato cultivation worldwide. In our study, we discovered that ROS (reactive oxygen species) burst was triggered by <italic>C. fulvum</italic> treatment in tomato leaves. RNA-sequencing was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) induced by <italic>C. fulvum</italic> inoculation at the early stage of invasion in susceptible tomato plants. Gene ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases were used to annotate functions of DEGs in tomato plants. Based on our comparative analysis, DEGs related to plant-pathogen interaction pathway, plant hormone signal transduction pathway and the plant phenylpropanoid pathway were further analyzed. Our results discovered that a number of core defense genes against fungal invasion were induced and plant hormone signal transduction pathways were impacted by <italic>C. fulvum</italic> inoculation. Further, our results showed that SA (salicylic acid) and ABA (abscisic acid) contents were accumulated while JA (jasmonic acid) content decreased after <italic>C. fulvum</italic> inoculation in comparison with control, and quantitative real-time PCR to detect the relative expression of genes involved in SA, ABA and JA signaling pathway further confirmed our results. Together, results will contribute to understanding the mechanisms of <italic>C. fulvum</italic> and tomato interaction in future.</p>