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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1458346

Molecular basis of resistance to leaf spot disease in oil palm

Provisionally accepted
Cahyo Wibowo Cahyo Wibowo 1Ricki Susilo Ricki Susilo 1Reza Ernawan Reza Ernawan 1Ardha Apriyanto Ardha Apriyanto 1Mohammed O Alshaharni Mohammed O Alshaharni 2Graham R Smith Graham R Smith 3*Angharad Margaret Roscoe Gatehouse Angharad Margaret Roscoe Gatehouse 4*Martin Gethin Edwards Martin Gethin Edwards 4
  • 1 PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 2 Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 Bioinformatics Support Unit, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom
  • 4 School of Natural and Environmental science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Leaf spot disease caused by the fungal pathogen Curvularia oryzae is one of the most common diseases found in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) nurseries in South East Asia, and is most prevalent at the seedling stage. Severe infections result in localized necrotic regions of leaves that rapidly spread within nurseries leading to poor quality seedlings and high economic losses. To understand the molecular mechanisms of this plant-pathogen interaction, RNA-Seq was used to elucidate the transcriptomes of three oil palm genotypes with contrasting pathogen responses (G10 and G12, resistant and G14, susceptible) following infection with C. oryzae spores. Transcriptomes were obtained from Illumina NovaSeq 6000 sequencing of mRNA at four different time points (day 0, before treatment; day 1, 7, and 21 post treatment). Analysis of differentially expressed gene (DEG) profiles in these three genotypes provided an overview of the genes involved in the plant defence. Genes involved in disease resistance, phytohormone biosynthesis, gene regulation (transcription factors), and those encoding proteins associated with cell wall hardening were identified and likely contribute to the resistance of oil palm to C. oryzae. Such genes represent good candidates for targets to enhance oil palm productivity and resilience through molecular breeding approaches.

    Keywords: Disease Resistance, Leaf spot, Oil palm, Nursery, RNA-Seq, Curvularia oryzae

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 22 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wibowo, Susilo, Ernawan, Apriyanto, Alshaharni, Smith, Gatehouse and Edwards. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Graham R Smith, Bioinformatics Support Unit, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, England, United Kingdom
    Angharad Margaret Roscoe Gatehouse, School of Natural and Environmental science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, North East England, United Kingdom

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