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Jurnal Aurelia Azalya Sofyan-7a - Compressed
Jurnal Aurelia Azalya Sofyan-7a - Compressed
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digital gene expression (DGE) analyses using sequencing reads from the libraries to compare
the gene expression profiles of a sweet potato cultivar challenged with pathogenic Fob and
identify a set of genes involved in the defense response to Fob. The comparisons will provide a
better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the defense response of sweet
potato to Fob.
second-strand cDNA synthesis. The overhangs were filled to blunt ends by exonuclease/poly-
merase activity. Then, the 3’ ends of the DNA fragments were adenylated, and NEBNext,
Adaptors with hairpin loop structures were ligated to the DNA fragments. cDNA fragments
with a size of 150–200 bp were purified with the AMPure XP system (Beckman Coulter, Bev-
erly, USA). The cDNA was then incubated with the USER Enzyme (NEB, USA) at 37˚C for 15
min and 95˚C for 5min. PCR was performed using Phusion High-Fidelity DNA polymerase
with Universal PCR primers and Index (X) Primer. The PCR products were purified with an
AMPure XP system. The library quality was evaluated with the Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100 sys-
tem. The index-coded samples were clustered using the cBot Cluster Generation System with
the TruSeq PE Cluster Kit v3-cBot-HS (Illumina) according to the manual. The library prepa-
rations were then sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. The resultant datasets are
available in the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus repository under GEO Series accession num-
ber GSE89290 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE89290).
Hochberg’s approach for controlling the false discovery rate. Genes with an adjusted P-value
<0.05, as determined by DESeq, were regarded as differentially expressed.
Experimental validation
Five genes were examined using real-time quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) to confirm their expres-
sion levels using FPKM, and the primers (Table 1) were designed using software Primer 5 and
synthesized by Invitrogen. The primer sequences are listed in Table 1. A total of 1 μg of total
RNA was used to synthesize the cDNA using the Prime Script RT Reagent Kit (Takara,
DaLian, China) in a 20-μL reaction mixture. qRT-PCR was performed on a StepOnePlus™
Real-Time PCR System (Thermo Fisher Scientific), and the sweet potato GAPDH gene [28]
was used as the endogenous reference control. All reference and selected genes were measured
in triplicate.
Each reaction had a total volume of 20 μL and contained 2 μL of cDNA, 0.2 μL (10 μmol L-1)
of gene-specific primers and 0.1 μL of CXR SYBR Green Master Mix. The real-time quantitative
PCR program was 95˚C for 10 min followed by 40 cycles of95˚C for 15 s, 55˚C for 20 s and
72˚C for 30 s. The data were processed with Excel 2007(Microsoft, WA, USA).
Results
RNA-Seq and de novo transcriptome assembly
To comprehensively generate the transcriptome and obtain insights into the molecular mecha-
nisms involved in the resistance of sweet potato to Fusarium wilt, the total RNA from the
stems of the highly resistant cultivar JS57 and highly susceptible cultivar XZH was isolated.
The RNAs were equally mixed to create an RNA pool for the cDNA library, and a database of
the sweet potato stem transcriptome was then generated through Illumina HiSeqTM 2500
sequencing. The deep sequencing produced 91,366,006 sequence reads with a length of 100 bp
each and an average GC content of 45.10%. After removing adaptors, primer sequences, poly-
A tails and short and low-quality sequences, 89,944,188 (98.44%, 11.24 Gbp) high-quality
reads with Q20 were retained and used for the assembly.
Due to the absence of a sequenced genome, all trimmed and cleaned reads were aligned
and assembled using Trinity [29], yielding a set of 146,859 transcript sequences that were lon-
ger than 201 bp with an N50 length of 1371 bp and 101,988 unigenes with an average length of
666 bp and an N50 length of 1079 bp. The length of the assembled unigenes varied from 201 to
Table 2. Frequency of the length distribution of the assembled transcripts and unigenes.
Transcript length interval 200–500 bp 500–1 kb 1–2 kb >2 kb Total
Number of transcripts 78031 30741 25195 12892 146859
Number of unigenes 64695 18719 12437 6137 101988
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187838.t002
15,576 bp, and more than 36.6% of these unigenes were longer than 501 bp, consistent with
previously reported transcriptome data from sweet potato (Tables 2 and 3, Fig 1) [24, 30, 31].
The lack of a reference sweet potato genome sequence is a barrier to identifying candidate
genes involved in disease resistance. The overview of the gene expression profile of sweet
potato challenged with Fob obtained in this study offers abundant sequence data for identify-
ing candidate genes associated with defense against Fusarium wilt.
Functional annotation
To annotate the obtained unigenes, we performed a BLASTX search against the NR NCBI pro-
tein databases with a cutoff E-value of 10−5 based on sequence similarity. In total, 62,605 uni-
genes were detected (Table 4) that had good comparability with known gene sequences in at
least one database, corresponding to approximately 61.38% of the total unigenes; 8,683
(8.51%) unigenes were annotated in all databases, including NR, NCBI non-redundant nucleo-
tide sequences (NT), KO, Swiss-Prot, Protein Family (PFAM), Gene Ontology (GO) and
Eukaryotic Ortholog Groups (KOG). As shown in Fig 2, the species that provided the best
BLASTX matches (first hit) was Nicotiana tomentosiformis (19.1%), with more than 10,000
genes having high homology, followed by Solanum lycopersicum, Naegleria gruberi, Coffea
canephora and Solanum tuberosum. However, more than half of the unigenes matched other
species.
Fig 1. Length distribution of the assembled transcripts and unigenes in sweet potato. The horizontal axis represents the length
intervals of the transcripts and unigenes, and the vertical axis represents the number of transcripts and unigenes.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187838.g001
modification, protein turnover, chaperones” (3,299, 14.6%). Interestingly, 122 genes were
aligned to the “defense mechanisms” cluster, which is helpful for understanding the mecha-
nisms of resistance to Fusarium wilt in sweet potato.
against the KEGG protein database was performed using a cutoff E-value of e-5. In total,
19,578 distinct gene sequences were assigned to 276 KEGG pathways. The pathways most rep-
resented by unique sequences included translation (2,560 genes), signal transduction (2,089
genes) and carbohydrate metabolism (1,963 genes) (Fig 5). The KEGG annotations reveal the
specific enrichment of pathways and the mechanisms involved in the response to Fob infection
in sweet potato.
Fig 2. Species distribution of the BLASTX matches of the transcriptome unigenes. This figure shows the
species distribution of the unigene BLASTX matches against the NR protein database (cutoff E-value of E<10−5) and
the proportions of each species.
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Fig 3. Histogram of GO classifications. The percentages indicate the proportion of unigenes with the GO annotations.
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Fig 4. Histogram of the COG classification in sweet potato. The horizontal axis represents the names of the COGs, and the
vertical axis represents the proportion of the group of the total number. In total, 22,613 sequences had COG classifications
across 25 categories.
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after infection with Fob, respectively, whereas these were found to be up-regulation by 1.40-,
1.62-, 1.71- and 3.1-fold according to the DGE results, respectively. The unigene c47391-g1
was down-regulated 33.19-fold according to the qRT-PCR results but by 1.93-fold according
to the DGE results.
Fig 6. qRT-PCR validation of the Fob-induced fold-changes detected using RNA-Seq. Standard error
bars are shown for the fold-changes determined by qRT-PCR.
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Table 5. Number of defense-related and differentially expressed genes identified in the response to Fob infection.
Related genes Gene numbers involved Significant differential expression Ratio of differentially expressed genes to total (%)
CERK 1 5 2 40.0
MAPK 66 6 9.1
JA signaling 14 2 14.3
SA signaling 25 4 16.0
ERF 40 14 35.0
WRKY 123 8 6.5
NAC 20 2 10.0
MYB 22 1 4.5
R genes 94 3 3.2
PR genes 57 7 12.3
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187838.t005
transduced from the receptor to downstream targets as a signal to sequentially activate the
expression of defense-related genes [34]. We identified 66 MAPK-related genes, of which six
were differentially expressed. MAPKs have attracted much attention because these genes are
involved in the induction and coordination of hormone-dependent and hormone-indepen-
dent plant responses against necrotrophic fungal pathogens [34].
Genes associated with the SA and JA signaling pathways. The plant hormones SA and
JA are major defensive players in the regulation of signaling networks underlying resistance to
pathogens [35]. SA plays an extensive signaling role in plants, particularly in the defense
against biotrophic/hemibiotrophic pathogens, by inducing cell death, activating the expression
of defense-related genes, and provoking systemic acquired resistance (SAR) [36, 37]. We iden-
tified 20 genes that were associated with the SA pathway (Table 5), and four of these genes
were differentially expressed. Two unigenes, c21763-g1 and c39777-g1, were up-regulated in
XZH-F07, and both were annotated as S-adenosyl-L-methioninesalicylic acid carboxyl methyl-
transferase (SAMT), which has been implicated in disease resistance responses in rice [38].
The unigene c58625-g1 was down-regulated in XZH-F07 and annotated as UDP-glycosyl-
transferase (UDPG), which might influence the accumulation of free SA, leading to changes in
the resistance of the host plant [39].
JA-dependent signaling is effective against necrotrophic pathogens [35], and we identified
two differentially expressed JA metabolism-related genes that were annotated as jasmonic acid
2 and jasmonate O-methyltransferase. These genes might play an important role in defense
against the necrotrophic phase of Fob infection.
WRKY transcription factor genes. In total, 123 WRKY genes were identified. Of these
123 WRKY genes, ten (8.1%) were significantly differentially expressed in at least one compari-
son (Tables 4 and 5). The WRKY transcription factors belong to a large family of transcrip-
tional regulators that are almost exclusively expressed in plants. These transcription factors
have diverse biological functions and play important roles in the defense response and hor-
mone-controlled processes by acting as transcriptional activators or repressors that regulate
major changes in plants during the early phases of root colonization with fungi [40–42].
Five unigenes (c54420-g2, c56135-g1, c57247-g1, c60589-g1, and c64728-g1) were exclu-
sively up-regulated in XZH-F07 and were identified as putative WRKY61, WRKY75, WRKY
22, WRKY71 and WRKY6, respectively, all of which are related to the defense response. In
Arabidopsis, the WRKY61 gene plays a role in reducing the symptom severity of turnip crinkle
virus disease and is associated with plant immunity pathways [43]. WRKY 75 plays a role in
decreasing the severity of bacterial soft rot disease and activates a subset of defense-related
genes in Chinese cabbage, similar to Arabidopsis [44]. WRKY22, WRKY71 and WRKY6 are all
involved in rice defense responses. WRKY22 also plays a role in the resistance response to
blast [45], and WRKY 71 functions as a transcriptional regulator upstream of OsNPR1 and
OsPR1b in defense signaling pathways [46]. WRKY6 positively regulates defense responses by
increasing SA concentrations through activation of the SA biosynthesis-related gene OsICS1
[47]. The unigene c46250-g1 was annotated as putative WRKY56 and was exclusively down-
regulated in XZH-F07; however, the function of the WRKY56 gene remains unclear. The uni-
gene c50623-g1 was annotated as a putative WRKY48-like gene, and its expression level was
significantly lower in JS57-CK than in XZH-CK. WRKY48 was identified as a negative regula-
tor of PR gene expression and basal resistance against the bacterial pathogen P. syringae in
Arabidopsis [48]. The unigene c33599-g2 was annotated as a putative WRKY gene because its
coding protein contains a WRKY-binding domain, and the expression level of WRKY in
JS57-F07 was 3.4-fold higher than that in ZXH-F07, indicating an important role in the
defense response.
Table 6. Differentially expressed genes involved in the defense response against Fob infection.
Gene ID Blast annotation JS57-F07 vs JS57-CK XZH-F07 vs XZH-CK
CERK c60044-g1 CERK1 [A. thaliana] 3.2 1.4
c62516-g1 CERK1-like [N. tomentosiformis] -4.1
MAPK c51382-g1 Wound-induced MAPK [N. glutinosa] 0.9
c54598-g1 MAPK 20 isoform X1 [N. tomentosiformis] 0.7
c58290-g1 MAPK [I. batatas] 1.3
c58750-g5 MAPK 9 [N. tomentosiformis] 0.8 1.1
c65078-g2 MAPK 6 isoform X1 [N. tomentosiformis] -1.2
c66053-g1 Receptor protein kinase [R. communis] -1.8
JA signaling c43470-g1 Jasmonic acid 2 [S. lycopersicum] 3.0
c52478-g1 Jasmonate O-methyltransferase [B. rapa] -0.9
SA signaling c56489-g2 Salicylic acid-binding protein 2 [N. benthamiana] -1.3
c57992-g1 Salicylic acid-binding protein 2-like [N. tomentosiformis] -3.2
c58625-g1 UDP-glycosyltransferase 74F2-like [N. tomentosiformis] -2.0
c65549-g1 UDP-glycosyltransferase 74F2-like [N. tomentosiformis] 1.3 -0.7
ERF c33996-g1 Ethylene-responsive-element-binding protein [S. lycopersicum] 2.6
c45744-g1 Ethylene response factor 3 [S. lycopersicum] 0.8
c51416-g2 Ethylene response factor 4 [S. lycopersicum] 1.2
c52634-g1 Ethylene response factor 2 [N. tomentosiformis] 1.3
c53488-g1 Ethylene response factor 13 [A. thaliana] 1.2 0.9
c55705-g1 Ethylene response 2 [A. thaliana] 2.2
c57791-g1 Ethylene-responsive factor [C. chinense] 3.6 0.6
c58358-g1 Ethylene response factor 13 [C. arabica] 1.9
c58425-g1 Ethylene receptor homolog [N. tabacum] 2.0
c60985-g1 Ethylene-responsive transcription factor ERF027 [A. thaliana] 1.6
c61066-g1 Ethylene-responsive-element-binding factor 5 [P. hybrida] -1.0
c61066-g2 Ethylene response factor 14 [A. deliciosa] 2.6
c64410-g1 Ethylene response factor 1 [I. batatas] 0.7
c65518-g1 Ethylene-insensitive protein 3 [N. tabacum] 0.7 0.5
WRKY c54420-g2 WRKY61 [N. tomentosiformis] 1.7
c56135-g1 WRKY75 [N. tomentosiformis] 1.6
c57247-g1 WRKY22 [C. roseus] 1.8 1.6
c60589-g1 WRKY71 [A. thaliana] 1.3
c64728-g1 WRKY6 [A. thaliana] 1.1
c46250-g1 WRKY56 [A. thaliana] -2.1
c50623-g1 WRKY48-like [S. tuberosum] -1.4
c33599-g2 Protein containing a WRKY-binding domain 3.4
NAC c51550-g2 NAC29 [A. thaliana] 2.1
c52292-g3 NAC7-like [M. acuminata] -3.7
MYB c5221-g1 Ipomoea batatas IbMYB1-2b 4.6
PR protein c35430-g1 PR-1 type-like [P. dactylifera] 2.1
c40413-g1 PR class 4 [Prunus dulcis] 3.5
c42566-g1 PR-4 [P. mume] 3.2
c47344-g1 PR-4A-like isoform X1 [C. arietinum] -1.5
c54564-g1 PR-1 [N. tomentosiformis] -1.5
c55964-g1 PR-10 [N. benthamiana] 5.9 2.6
c58341-g1 PR-1 type-like [P. dactylifera] 0.8
(Continued)
Table 6. (Continued)
Note: Significant differences (FDR0.001) in relative levels and |log2.Fold-change|1 are shown in boldface. FDR, false discovery rate. log2.Fold-change,
log2-fold-changes using the ratio base 2 logarithm.INF, the adjusted read count of the gene was 0 in the control sample.
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NAC transcription factor genes. NAC transcription factors are a large family of tran-
scriptional regulators that play crucial roles in plant immune responses, basal defense, and
SAR [49]. We identified 20 NAC transcription factor genes, and only two (10%) of these genes
were significantly differentially expressed in at least one comparison (Table 5). The unigene
c51550-g2 was annotated AS NAC29, and its expression level increased in XZH-F07. NAC29
plays important roles in senescence processes and responses to salt and drought stresses in
wheat [50]; however, there are no studies of the function of this gene in disease resistance. The
other unigene, c52292-g3, was annotated as a NAC7-like gene, and its expression level was
3.7-fold lower in JS57-CK than in XZH-CK, indicating that this gene is also a negative regula-
tor of the defense response.
ERF genes. ERFs are responsible for generating tolerance to stress in plants. Most ERFs
are transcriptional activators, although some act as transcriptional repressors [51]. We identi-
fied 40 ERFs, of which 14 were differentially expressed. These were all up-regulated, except
forc61066-g1 (putative ERF 5), indicating that most ERFs are activated in response to Fob
invasion. The gene c61066-g1 was annotated as ERF5 and was down-regulated in XZH-F07,
indicating that this gene may be a negative regulator of disease resistance in sweet potato. This
finding is consistent with results in Arabidopsis indicating that ERF5 negatively regulates chitin
signaling and plant defense against the fungal pathogen Alternaria brassicicola [52].
MYB transcription factor genes. The transcription factor MYB family of proteins is large
and functionally diverse in all eukaryotes and plays crucial roles in the interaction of regulatory
networks that control development, metabolism and the response to biotic or abiotic stresses
[53]. The unigene c5221-g1 was annotated as IbMYB1 and was expressed at a 4.6-fold higher
level in Js57-CK than in XZH-CK, indicating its important potential function in the defense
response. In sweet potato, MYB1 (IbMYB1) stimulates the accumulation of anthocyanin pig-
mentation in the tuberous roots of sweet potato and the leaves of tobacco and arabidopsis [54–
56]. IbMYB1 also improves tolerance and enhances secondary metabolism in transgenic pota-
toes [57].
PR genes. PR proteins are induced in plants upon attack by various pathogens and
stresses and perform diverse functions, including plant defense, disease resistance, and anti-
fungal activity [58]. PR proteins play important roles in hypersensitive responses and most
likely contribute to SAR [59]. We identified 57 PR genes, of which seven were differentially
expressed in at least one comparison and were annotated as PR-1-, PR-4- and PR-10-type pro-
teins (Table 5). PR-1-type proteins appear to be hallmarks of activation of the hypersensitive
response and SA-dependent SAR pathways [60]. The PR-4 protein is one of the less well-stud-
ied of the 17 PR protein groups and is considered an endochitinase with chitinase activity [61]
and a bifunctional enzyme with both RNase and DNase activities [62]. We identified three
genes that were annotated as PR-4 type proteins, but further studies are required to better
understand their functions. The gene c55964-g1 was annotated as PR-10 and was up-regulated
5.9-foldin JS57-F07, which is markedly higher than the 2.6-fold increase in expression
observed in XZH-F07, indicating its important function in the defense against Fob in sweet
potato and consistent with its function in peanut [63].
R genes. According to the gene-for-gene hypothesis, R proteins recognize and interact
with effectors and trigger ETI [12]. We identified 94 R genes in the transcriptome, most of
which contain a highly conserved domain characterized by an NBS-LRR structure (data not
shown). However, only three of these genes were differentially expressed (Table 5). Interest-
ingly, the unigene c56584-g1 was identified as a putative NBS-coding R protein that was up-
regulated 9.8-fold in JS57-F07, indicating a crucial role in the defense response.
Discussion
Sweet potato is an important crop worldwide and represents a non-model plant with a large,
complex genome [18]. The lack of a reference genome sequence is a barrier to the identifica-
tion of candidate genes involved in disease resistance. The application of high-throughput
sequencing technology can generate a large amount of transcriptome data, which is helpful for
gaining an understanding of the mechanism of resistance and identifying related genes.
In the present study, we first characterized the transcriptome profile of sweet potato chal-
lenged with Fob. Illumina sequencing generated 89,944,188 clean, high-quality reads that were
assembled into 101,988 unigenes with an average length of 666 bp, and 61.38% of these were
functionally annotated in the NR protein database. Undoubtedly, the results of our study pro-
vide an overview of the gene expression profile of sweet potato challenged with Fob and offer
abundant sequence data for the discovery of candidate genes involved in the resistance to
Fusarium wilt. A large proportion of the unigenes (18,574 unigenes, 18.2%) are longer than 1
kb, facilitating the discovery of defense-related genes.
Many genes were up- and down-regulated in sweet potato when challenged with Fob. A
Venn diagram illustrating the overlap in the differentially expressed genes in the comparisons
of JS57-F07 with JS57-CK and XZH-F07 with XZH-CK is shown in Fig 7. There were more
up-regulated than down-regulated genes, with 5,552 up-regulated and 1,274 down-regulated
genes in XZH and 3,843 up-regulated and 2,611 down-regulated genes in JS57. In contrast, in
banana infected with Foc TR4, the numbers of up-regulated and down-regulated genes were
almost the same [64]. In the two comparisons, 2,438 overlapping differentially expressed up-
regulated genes were identified, accounting for 43.91% (2438/5552) and 63.44% (2438/3843)
Fig 7. Venn diagram showing overlapping differentially expressed genes in the comparisons of JS57-F07 with
JS57-CK and XZH-F07 with XZH-CK.
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in each comparison. However, only 290 differentially expressed down-regulated genes were
detected, accounting for 11.10% (290/2611) and 22.76% (290/1274) in each comparison.
Plants thrive in certain environments and are continuously challenged by various forms of
biotic stresses; thus, plants have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to sense biotic aggressors,
activate complex phytohormones signaling networks, stimulate plant immune system
responses, and regulate the expression of defense-related genes [34]. We identified a set of
defense-related genes, including transcription factors, PR genes, R genes, and genes involved
in the SA and JA signaling pathways, in the transcriptome.
PAMPs of fungal pathogens, such as chitin, chitosan and endopolygalacturonase, are per-
ceived by PRRs in host plants and activate PTI [34]. CERK1 is an important PRR that plays a
crucial role in chitin perception in Arabidopsis thaliana in the immune response against fungal
pathogens [33]. We identified two CERK1 genes that were differentially expressed in the exam-
ined libraries. Intriguingly, c62516-g1 (putative CERK1-like) was down-regulated 4.1-fold in
JS57-F07, indicating that effectors of Fob might suppress the expression of c62516-g1 during
colonization, thereby restraining PTI in host plants. However, because JS57 is highly resistant
to Fob, this plant must have R genes that recognize the effector and trigger ETI to activate
defense responses.
The recognition of pathogens by PRRs in plants triggers MAPK cascades and activates SA,
JA or ET signaling pathways, facilitating the mounting of defense responses against invading
pathogens and inducing the expression of numerous defense-related genes [34]. SA plays a
crucial role in plant-pathogen interactions by activating defense responses and is also involved
in inducing SAR [65]. SA activates plant immune responses against biotrophic pathogens,
whereas JA activates plant immune responses against necrotrophic pathogens [35]. The JA
and SA signaling pathways might interact antagonistically [66] or positively [67]. The crosstalk
between SA and JA is controlled by a novel function of cytosolic NPR1 [68] and WRKY tran-
scription factors [69]. As a hemibiotrophic pathogen, the lifestyle of Fob includes an initial bio-
trophic phase (host cell remains alive) and a necrotrophic phase (host tissue is killed) [70]. The
crosstalk between the JA and SA signaling pathways might be more complicated in sweet
potato during Fob invasion, and further research is required to better understand the interac-
tions during signal transduction.
Effectors enable pathogens to overcome PTI in host plants, and these factors can be recog-
nized by the corresponding R genes of the host plants, leading to ETI [11]. R proteins play a
pivotal role in inducing ETI responses. Most R genes encode NB-LRR proteins [11]. We iden-
tified 94 R genes in the transcriptome, and three of these genes were differentially expressed.
Interestingly, c56584-g1 (putative NBS-coding resistance protein) was up-regulated 9.8-fold in
JS57-F07, indicating its important role in defense responses against Fob. Cloning of the R gene
from sweet potato and the effector gene from Fob and further studies of the interaction
between these genes are required to elucidate the defense mechanism of sweet potato.
Conclusions
In the present study, we de novo constructed and characterized the transcriptomes of sweet
potato challenged with Fob and identified 101,988 unigenes, generating a broad survey of
genes involved in disease resistance. We performed DGE profiling analyses of sweet potato
challenged with Fob and calculated the numbers of differentially expressed genes between
libraries, identifying several up- and down-regulated genes. A set of candidate genes in sweet
potato involved in the disease response to Fusarium wilt were identified, including WRKY and
NAC transcription factors, R genes, PR genes and SA pathway-related genes. Some of these
genes, such as c56584-g1 (putative R gene) and c55964-g1 (putative PR-10), were significantly
up-regulated and implicated in the defense response against Fob. These data provide an under-
standing of the molecular mechanisms of disease resistance. This sequence resource will be
valuable for genetic and genomic studies and will accelerate breeding programs for sweet
potato with Fusarium wilt resistance.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization: Yuli Lin, Xuanyang Chen.
Data curation: Yuli Lin, Shiqiang Lin, Haizhou Chen, Songliang Wang, Xuanyang Chen.
Formal analysis: Yuli Lin, Weikun Zou, Shiqiang Lin, Dennis Onofua, Zhijian Yang, Xua-
nyang Chen.
Investigation: Yuli Lin, Weikun Zou, Dennis Onofua, Zhijian Yang, Haizhou Chen.
Project administration: Xuanyang Chen.
Supervision: Xuanyang Chen.
Validation: Weikun Zou, Shiqiang Lin, Xuanyang Chen.
Writing – original draft: Yuli Lin.
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