Identification and functional analysis of nematode resistance genes

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Ana Isabel Paulino da
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/11362
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Outras Engenharias e Tecnologias

Pine wilt disease (PWD), caused by the pinewood nematode (PWN; Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), damages and kills pine trees and is causing serious economic damage worldwide. Although the ecological mechanism of infestation is well described, the plant’s molecular response to the pathogen is not well known. This is due mainly to the lack of genomic information and the complexity of the disease. High throughput sequencing is now an efficient approach for detecting the expression of genes in non-model organisms, thus providing valuable information in spite of the lack of the genome sequence. In an attempt to unravel genes potentially involved in the pine defense against hereby report the high throughput comparative sequence analysis of infested and non-infested stems of Pinus pinaster (very susceptible to PWN) and Pinus pinea (less susceptible to PWN). High throughput sequencing allowed the identification of several candidate genes that may be involved in the response to the PWN. With regards to the gene function most commonly identified, the majority of the sequence functions were associated with protein metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism. However, a significant fraction of sequences associated with RNA metabolism were also highly represented. The sequences that were more commonly found in Pinus pinaster were transcription repressors and a translation machinery component: aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase. The cellulose synthase is also important in the disease response, as this gene was up-regulated in infested Pinus pinaster. KEGG analysis revealed that the pathway more commonly found in this study were the pentose pathway, the pathway for glucuronate interconversion, the pathway for phenylanine metabolism, amino acid, sugar and nucleotide metabolism, phenylppropanoid biosynthesis, methane metabolism, and citrate cycle (TCA cycle).