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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Resistance mechanisms and expression of disease resistance-related genes in sugarcane (Sacchrum officinarum) to Sporisorium scitamineum infection

Nurul Hidayah https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1098-5918 A B * , Meredith McNeil C , Jingchuan Li C , Shamsul Bhuiyan D , Victor Galea B and Karen Aitken C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development, Jl Ragunan 29, Pasar Minggu, Jakarta Selatan 12540, Indonesia.

B School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Gatton Campus, Qld 4343, Australia.

C CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Queensland Bioscience Precinct, 306 Carmody Rd, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.

D Sugar Research Australia Woodford Station, 90 Old Cove Rd, Woodford, Qld 4514, Australia.

* Correspondence to: nurul.hidayah@uqconnect.edu.au

Handling Editor: Adriano Sofo

Functional Plant Biology 48(12) 1302-1314 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP21122
Submitted: 28 October 2020  Accepted: 6 October 2021   Published: 2 November 2021

© 2021 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Resistance of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) to smut disease (caused by Sporisorium scitamineum) is driven by two separate mechanisms, external and internal resistance. Two progenies generated from an introgression cross, with contrasting responses to smut infection were used to investigate this interaction. Histopathological screening at different stages of the plant growth was used to determine the extent of mycelium growth within sugarcane tissues. Ten disease resistance-related genes were selected, and the relative expression determined using quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (real-time RT-qPCR). The results revealed that PR10, HCT1 and ScChi were down-regulated in the susceptible progeny and up-regulated in the resistant progeny early infection process. This may reflect an early attempt to halt pathogen development by increasing the lignin deposition at the infection site. At 8 weeks post-inoculation, they were highly up-regulated in the susceptible progeny coincided with whip development. This reveals a major role for these genes to whip development in the susceptible progeny and indicates that while PR10 is involved in the resistance mechanism of resistant progeny early infection process it also has a role in susceptibility. These results on genetically related progeny with different responses to smut infection reveal a complex interaction of genes and gene networks being induced in response to fungal invasion.

Keywords: disease resistance-related genes, external resistance, internal resistance, resistance mechanisms, RT-qPCR, Sporisorium scitamineum, sugarcane smut fungus, sugarcane-smut pathogen interaction.


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