METAANÁLISIS DE TRANSCRIPTOMAS DE MAÍZ (ZEA MAYS L.) EN RESPUESTA A FUSARIUM VERTICILLIOIDES, F. GRAMINEARUM Y USTILAGO MAYDIS

PEÑAS BALLESTEROS, A; BARICALLA, AA; IGLESIAS J

Pergamino, Buenos Aires

Congreso; XII Congreso Nacional de Maíz; 2022

Asociación de Ingenieros Agrónomos del Norte de Buenos Aires

Maize (Zea mays L.) ears are affected by several pathogens that impact grain yield andquality, such as Fusarium verticillioides (necrotroph), F. graminearum (hemibiotroph)and Ustilago maydis (biotroph). Even though there is a large volume of transcriptomicdata available at NCBI regarding maize responses to these pathogens, studies onmultiple disease resistance are lacking. In this work, we aimed at identifying key genesand metabolic pathways involved in the multiple disease response of maize against theaforementioned ear rot pathogens. We analyzed RNA-seq data from four transcriptomicstudies that evaluated resistant and/vs. susceptible maize genotypes under artificialinoculation at 48 and 72 hours after infection with each pathogen. The results obtainedshowed that resistant genotypes differentially overexpressed 1539 genes involved in thebiosynthesis of phenylpropanoids, monoterpenoids and other secondary metabolites,while the susceptible genotypes differentially overexpressed 1356 genes associated withthe photosynthesis pathway. This finding highlights that resistance leads to changes insecondary metabolism (specialized metabolites) based on the induction of defenseprograms while susceptibility leads to changes in primary metabolism which affectgrowth and development of the plant. These results will contribute towards ourunderstanding of the mechanisms underlying multiple disease resistance to maize ear rotpathogens with different lifestyles.