J Integr Plant Biol. ›› 2016, Vol. 58 ›› Issue (5): 503-513.DOI: 10.1111/jipb.12432

• Plant-environmental Interactions • Previous Articles    

Suppression of the homeobox gene HDTF1 enhances resistance to Verticillium dahliae and Botrytis cinerea in cotton

Wei Gao1,2, Lu Long1,2, Li Xu1, Keith Lindsey3, Xianlong Zhang1 and Longfu Zhu1*   

  1. 1National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China
    2State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Henan Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, China
    3Integrative Cell Biology Laboratory, School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham, Durham, UK
  • Received:2015-04-25 Accepted:2015-09-21 Published:2015-09-26
  • About author:*Correspondence: E-mail: lfzhu@mail.hzau.edu.cn

Abstract:

Development of pathogen-resistant crops, such as fungus-resistant cotton, has significantly reduced chemical application and improved crop yield and quality. However, the mechanism of resistance to cotton pathogens such as Verticillium dahliae is still poorly understood. In this study, we characterized a cotton gene (HDTF1) that was isolated following transcriptome profiling during the resistance response of cotton to V. dahliae. HDTF1 putatively encodes a homeodomain transcription factor, and its expression was found to be down-regulated in cotton upon inoculation with V. dahliae and Botrytis cinerea. To characterise the involvement of HDTF1 in the response to these pathogens, we used virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) to generate HDTF1-silenced cotton. VIGS reduction in HDTF1 expression significantly enhanced cotton plant resistance to both pathogens. HDTF1 silencing resulted in activation of jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated signaling and JA accumulation. However, the silenced plants were not altered in the accumulation of salicylic acid (SA) or the expression of marker genes associated with SA signaling. These results suggest that HDTF1 is a negative regulator of the JA pathway, and resistance to V. dahliae and B. cinerea can be engineered by activation of JA signaling.

Key words: Botrytis cinerea, cotton, jasmonic acid, Verticillium dahliae, virus-induced gene silencing

Editorial Office, Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, Institute of Botany, CAS
No. 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
Tel: +86 10 6283 6133 Fax: +86 10 8259 2636 E-mail: jipb@ibcas.ac.cn
Copyright © 2022 by the Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Online ISSN: 1744-7909 Print ISSN: 1672-9072 CN: 11-5067/Q
备案号:京ICP备16067583号-22