Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis of Wheat Cultivars in Response to Xanthomonas translucens pv. cerealis and Its T2SS, T3SS, and TALEs Deficient Strains

Abstract

Xanthomonas translucens pv. cerealis causes bacterial leaf streak disease on small grain cereals. Type II and III secretion systems (T2SS and T3SS) play a pivotal role in the pathogenicity of the bacterium, while no data are available on the transcriptomic profile of wheat cultivars infected with either wild type (WT) or mutants of the pathogen. In this study, WT, TAL-effector mutants, and T2SS/T3SS mutants of X. translucens pv. cerealis strain NXtc01 were evaluated for their effect on the transcriptomic profile of two wheat cultivars, ‘Chinese Spring’ and ‘Yangmai-158’, using Illumina RNA-sequencing technology. RNA-Seq data showed that the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was higher in Yangmai-158 than in Chinese Spring, suggesting higher susceptibility of Yangmai-158 to the pathogen. In T2SS, most suppressed DEGs were related to transferase, synthase, oxidase, WRKY, and bHLH transcription factors. The gspD mutants showed significantly decreased disease development in wheat, suggesting an active contribution of T2SS in virulence. Moreover, the gspD mutant restored full virulence and its multiplication in planta by addition of gspD in trans. In the T3SS-deficient strain, downregulated DEGs were associated with cytochrome, peroxidases, kinases, phosphatases, WRKY, and ethylene-responsive transcription factors. In contrast, upregulated DEGs were trypsin inhibitors, cell number regulators, and calcium transporter. Transcriptomic analyses coupled with quantitative real-time-PCR indicated that some genes are upregulated in Δ tal1/Δ tal2 compared with the tal-free strain, but no direct interaction was observed. These results provide novel insight into wheat transcriptomes in response to X. translucens infection and pave the way for understanding host–pathogen interactions.