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Functional analysis of BT4 of Arabidopsis thaliana in resistance against Botrytis cinerea

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Abstract

Botrytis cinerea is a fungus with a necrotrophic lifestyle attacking over 200 crop hosts worldwide, resulting in significant economic losses. At present, the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in plant resistance to B. cinerea and their genetic control are poorly understood. The Arabidopsis BT4 gene was previously isolated by DDRT-PCR under B. cinerea infection. However a role for BT4 in defense signaling has not been described to date. Compared with wild-type (wt) Col-0, the loss-of-function mutant of BT4 showed increased susceptibility to B. cinerea and enhanced expression of some defense-related genes such as PR1, SOD1, PPO, PAL, POD and CAT. However, expression of other defense-related genes such as NPR1, PR4 and PDF1.2 were repressed in the mutant compared with wt plants. In addition, transgenic lines overexpressing BT4 restored resistance to B. cinerea. Taken together, our results indicate that BT4 play an important role in Arabidopsis in resistance to B. cinerea perhaps by regulating the expression of defense-related genes in response to SA and JA signaling pathways.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (No. 31200203), Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (NO.20121302120007) and Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (No. C2012204032). We thank Dr. Yiji Xia (Hong Kong Baptist University) for critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mycotoxin and Molecular Plant Pathology Lab, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding, 071001, People’s Republic of China

    Cong-Cong Hao, Jiao Jia, Ji-Hong Xing, Feng-Ru Wang, Jin-Gao Dong & Jian-Min Han

  2. Institute of Plant Protection, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Gongzhuling, 136100, People’s Republic of China

    Jiao Jia

  3. Institute of Fruit Tree, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050061, People’s Republic of China

    Zhan Chen

  4. Department of Agricultural and Forest Technology, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, 075131, People’s Republic of China

    Qiao-Yun Weng

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  1. Cong-Cong Hao
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  2. Jiao Jia
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  4. Ji-Hong Xing
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ji-Hong Xing or Jin-Gao Dong.

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Cong-Cong Hao and Jiao Jia contributed equally to this study.

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Hao, CC., Jia, J., Chen, Z. et al. Functional analysis of BT4 of Arabidopsis thaliana in resistance against Botrytis cinerea . Australasian Plant Pathol. 42, 393–401 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-013-0202-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-013-0202-6

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