Convergent Gene Expression Patterns During Compatible Interactions Between Two Pseudomonas syringae Pathovars and a Common Host (Nicotiana benthamiana)

Abstract

Summary/AbstractPseudomonas syringae is a diverse phytopathogenic species complex, and includes strains that can cause disease across a wide variety of plant species. Much previous research into the molecular basis of immunity and infection has focused on pathogen and plant responses in a handful of model strains and hosts, and with a tacit assumption that early steps in infection and host resistance are generalizable to the species complex and across plant hosts as a whole. Here, we provide a test of this assumption by measuring the dual pathogen and host transcriptomes of two distinct pathogenic lineages of P. syringae during compatible infection of a shared model host (Nicotiana benthamiana). Our results demonstrate that, with a handful of exceptions, host plants largely respond in a similar way to both pathogenic lineages at 5 hours post infection. This convergence in host responses occurs despite subtle but broader divergence in pathogen transcriptomes that hints at ecological differentiation during infection. Overall, our results provide evidence of common host responses to closely related pathogens while highlighting differential responses of distinct bacterial lineages during infection of a common host plant.