Specifically expressed genes of the nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus involved with early interactions with pine trees

PLoS One. 2013 Oct 14;8(10):e78063. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078063. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

As the causal agent of pine wilt disease (PWD), the pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, causes huge economic losses by devastating pine forests worldwide. However, the pathogenesis-related genes of B. xylophilus are not well characterized. Thus, DNA microarrays were used to investigate differential gene expression in PWN where Pinus thunbergii was inoculated with nematodes, compared with those cultured on Botrytis cinerea. The microarrays comprised 31121 probes, 1310 (4.2%) of which were differentially regulated (changes of >2-fold, P < 0.01) in the two growth conditions. Of these 1310 genes, 633 genes were upregulated, whereas 677 genes were downregulated. Gene Ontology (GO) categories were assigned to the classes Cellular Component, Molecular Function, and Biological Process. The comparative gene expression analysis showed that a large number of the pathogenesis-related genes of B. xylophilus, such as pectate lyase genes, cytochrome P450s, UGTs, and ABC transporter genes, were highly expressed when B. xylophilus infected P. thunbergii. Annotation analysis indicated that these genes contributed to cell wall degradation, detoxification, and the reproduction process. The microarray results were validated using quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). The microarray data confirmed the specific expression of B. xylophilus genes during infection of P. thunbergii, which provides basic information that facilitates a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of PWD.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Botrytis
  • Cell Wall / parasitology
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Host-Parasite Interactions / genetics*
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Pinus / parasitology*
  • Plant Diseases / parasitology*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Tylenchida / genetics*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the State Forest Administration of China (number 201204501), the project of National Science Research of Jiangsu University in China (number 11KJA220002), National Nature Science Foundation of China (number 31000303), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (number BK2010566). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.