Transcriptome analysis reveals genes associated with late blight resistance in potato

Nisha Bhatia, Jagesh Kumar Tiwari, Chandresh Kumari, Rasna Zinta, Sanjeev Sharma, Tanuja Buckseth, Ajay K Thakur, Rajesh K Singh, Vinod Kumar

Sci Rep.; 2024 Jul 5; 14(1):15501. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-60608-3.

Potato Late Blight.

Abstract

Late blight is a serious disease of potato worldwide. Our study aimed to unveil genes involved in late blight resistance in potato by RNA-seq analysis after artificial inoculation under controlled conditions. In this study, two potato somatic hybrids (P7 and Crd6) and three varieties such as Kufri Girdhari, Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Bahar (control) were used. Transcriptiome analysis revealed statistically significant (p < 0.05) differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were analysed into up-regulated and down-regulated genes. Further, DEGs were functionally characterized by the Gene Ontology annotations and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways. Overall, some of the up-regulated genes in resistant genotypes were disease resistance proteins such as CC-NBS-LRR resistance protein, ankyrin repeat family protein, cytochrome P450, leucine-rich repeat family protein/protein kinase family, and MYB transcription factor. Sequence diversity analysis based on 38 peptide sequences representing 18 genes showed distinct variation and the presence of three motifs in 15 amino acid sequences. Selected genes were also validated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. Interestingly, gene expression markers were developed for late blight resistant genotypes. Our study elucidates genes involved in imparting late blight resistance in potato, which will be beneficial for its management strategies in the future.

See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38969681/

Figure 2

Heat maps of top 50 differentially expressed genes (p < 0.05) for late blight resistance in potato somatic hybrid P7 versus Kufri Bahar (KB, control) by RNA-seq. In heat map, each horizontal line refers to a gene. Relatively up-regulated genes are shown in red colour, whereas down-regulated genes are shown in green colour.

Figure 3

Heat maps of top 50 differentially expressed genes (p < 0.05) in potato variety Kufri Girdhari (KG) versus Kufri Bahar (KB, control) by RNA-seq after artificial inoculation of P. infestans under controlled conditions. In heat map, each horizontal line refers to a gene. Relatively up-regulated genes are shown in red colour, whereas down-regulated genes are shown in green colour.