SURVEY OF GENE EXPRESSION DURING UREDOSPORE GERMINATION IN PUCCINIA SORGHI

Transcript profiling is commonly used to identify genes that are expressed under various conditions, in different tissues and developmental stages of organisms. Transcripts tags detected from germinating uredospores of Puccinia sorghi T09 isolate using a modified cDNA-AFLP approach were characterized in the current study. GenBank similarity searches and sequence mapping of 56 sequence tags to available genome sequence of Argentinian strain RO10H11247 revealed 38 P. sorghi similar sequences, corresponding to 31 individual Genbank records. With the obtained similarities and protein domain searches, presumed functions associated with the 27 Ps TDFs were inferred, the majority of which appear to encode products that appear to be important in host invasion, pathogen growth and proliferation. Among them, chitinase, oligopeptide transporter protein, peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase, signal peptide, small secreted proteins, velvet and cutinase domain containing proteins are the prominent ones. Expressions of four selected genes, three of which are newly identified, were verified in germinating spores and infected plant leaf material cDNA preparations with RT-sqPCR. Together with the newly identified and annotated P. sorghi genes, obtained profile, in general, represent a gene set whose products are conceivably involved in host invasion and pathogenesis along with the basic housekeeping functions.

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