Changes in gene expresión of strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) defense response against two Colletotrichum species

GRELLET, CARLOS; CASTAGNARO, ATILIO; DIAZ RICCI, JUAN CARLOS

Tafí del Valle, Tucumán, Argentina

Congreso; XXIV Jornadas científicas de la Asociación de Biología de Tucumán; 2008

ABT

The plants defense response usually involve early events, and late signals such as certain molecules associated exclusively with a specific signaling path, i.e. salicylic acid (SA), ethylene (ET), jasmonic acid (JA) and some phytoalexins, which lead to changes in the expression of many genes, including certain genes closely associated with these signal molecules. In this work, we evaluated the expression of genes closely associated with SA (e.g. FaPAL, PR-1) and ET (e.g. FaEtr1, FaACO, ApxSC) signaling pathways. As a model of plant-pathogen interaction we used the cv. ‘Pájaro’ of Fragaria ananassa, the avirulent pathogen Colletotrichum fragariae (isolated M23) and the virulent pathogen Colletotrichum acutatum (isolated M11). Results show an increase in gene expression associated with SA in the incompatible interaction and a lower expression of genes associated with the ET pathway in the compatible interaction as compared to water-treated plants. These results confim the participation of SA in the defense response induced by the isolate M23 and the inhibition of the ET pathway exerted by the isolate M11, enabling by this means the development of the anthracnose disease.