Poster: Molecular & Cellular Plant-Microbe Interactions: MPMI
711-P
Homologs of CsLOB1 can function as disease susceptibility genes in citrus canker
J. ZHANG (1), J. Tapia (1), Y. Hu (2), J. Jones (1), N. Wang (1), S. Liu (3), W. Frank (1) (1) University of Florida, U.S.A.; (2) Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China, U.S.A.; (3) Kansas State
The lateral organ boundary domain (LBD) genes is a plant-specific family of proteins that function as transcription factors for plant growth and development. Citrus sinensis lateral organ boundary 1 (CsLOB1) functions as a disease susceptibility (S) gene in citrus bacterial canker (CBC). The Citrus sinensis genome contains thirty-four LBD members. We assessed the potential for additional LBD genes in citrus to function as surrogates for CsLOB1 and compared host gene expression upon induction of different genes. Using custom designed TAL effectors (dTALes), CsLOB2 and CsLOB3 functioned similarly to CsLOB1 in CBC. Quantitative RT-PCR of mRNA during infection revealed a set of cell wall metabolic genes that are associated with CsLOB1, CsLOB2 and CsLOB3 expression. The genes may represent downstream genes involved in CBC.