Authors: Changchun Wang Xinzhong Cai Zhong Zheng
Publish Date: 2005/07/30
Volume: 222, Issue: 6, Pages: 947-956
Abstract
Geneforgene resistance is a wellknown type of plant disease resistance It is governed by plant resistance R genes and their matching pathogen avirulence Avr genes This resistance is characterized by a hypersensitive response HR resulting from the interaction between products of a complementary R and Avr gene pair The pathosystem of tomato Lycopersicon esculentum Mill and its leaf mold fungal pathogen Cladosporium fulvum is a model system to study geneforgene resistance HR occurs in tomato seedlings carrying a tomato Cf resistance gene and a matching C fulvum Avr gene including for example Cf4/Avr4 and Cf9/Avr9 Employing Cf/Avr tomato seedlings that both express a Cf gene and the matching Avr gene here we report that both Cf4/Avr4 and Cf9/Avr9dependent HR is delayed and reduced under high humidity 95 and that Cf9/Avr9dependent HR is more sensitive to high humidity when compared to Cf4/Avr4dependent HR Furthermore high humidity acts synergistically with high temperature on HR suppression resulting in complete blocking of the HR The transcript profile of over 60 genes related to HR signaling and defense in Cf/Avr seedlings grown under high humidity and thus showing no HR significantly differed from that of the same seedlings grown under normal humidity and thus showing HR These results demonstrate that high humidity probably acts at a very early point of the Cf downstream signaling pathway or alternatively influences the interaction between the Cf and the Avr proteinsWe thank Prof Pierre JGM de Wit and Dr Matthieu HAJ Joosten Wageningen University The Netherlands for providing seeds of tomato lines MMCf4 and MMCf9 Wei Hong is acknowledged for technical support with the reverse Northern studies This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China grant No 30070492 SRF for ROCS SEM grant No 2001498 and Zhejiang Provincial Analysis and Measurement Foundation grant No 03132
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