Fusarium ear rot, caused by Fusarium verticillioides, is a devastating fungal disease in maize that reduces yield and quality; moreover, F. verticillioides produces fumonisin mycotoxins, which pose serious threats to human and animal health. Here, we performed a genome‐wide association study (GWAS) under three environmental conditions and identified 34 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were significantly associated with Fusarium ear rot resistance. With reference to the maize B73 genome, 69 genes that overlapped with or were adjacent to the significant SNPs were identified as potential resistance genes to Fusarium ear rot. Comparing transcriptomes of the most resistant and most susceptible lines during the very early response to Fusarium ear rot, we detected many differentially expressed genes enriched for pathways related to plant immune responses, such as plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and cytochrome P450 metabolism. More than one‐fourth of the potential resistance genes detected in the GWAS were differentially expressed in the transcriptome analysis, which allowed us to predict numbers of candidate genes for maize resistance to ear rot, including genes related to plant hormones, a MAP kinase, a PR5‐like receptor kinase, and heat shock proteins. We propose that maize plants initiate early immune responses to Fusarium ear rot mainly by regulating the growth‐defense balance and promoting biosynthesis of defense compounds.

中文翻译：

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全基因组关联研究和转录组分析相结合，揭示了玉米抗镰刀菌腐烂的候选基因。

枯萎病镰刀菌引起的镰刀菌腐烂病是玉米中一种破坏性真菌病，降低了产量和品质；此外，F。verticillioides产生伏马菌素霉菌毒素，对人类和动物健康构成严重威胁。在这里，我们在三种环境条件下进行了全基因组关联研究（GWAS），确定了34个与镰刀菌耳腐病抗性显着相关的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）。参考玉米B73基因组，与重要SNP重叠或相邻的69个基因被鉴定为潜在的镰刀菌抗性基因耳腐。在对镰刀菌（Fusarium）耳腐的早期响应过程中，比较最抗性和最易感系的转录组，我们检测到许多差异表达的基因，这些基因丰富了与植物免疫反应相关的途径，例如植物激素信号转导，苯丙烷类生物合成和细胞色素P450代谢。在GWAS中检测到的潜在抗性基因的四分之一以上在转录组分析中差异表达，这使我们能够预测玉米对耳腐病的抗性候选基因的数量，包括与植物激素，MAP激酶， PR5样受体激酶和热休克蛋白。我们建议玉米植物开始对镰刀菌的早期免疫反应 耳腐主要通过调节生长防御平衡并促进防御化合物的生物合成来实现。