Abstract
Grapevine, one of the most important fruit crops worldwide is host to various pathogens, some of which have been spread intercontinentally in the early history of viticulture. One of the most problematic diseases is downy mildew, caused by the oomycete Plasmopara viticola (Berk. & Curt.) Berl. & de Toni which was introduced to Europe from North America in the 19th century. In addition to the establishment of chemical plant protection measures, extensive resistance breeding activities have succeeded in establishing varieties that are able to limit the propagation of this pathogen Recent studies have indicated an important role of subtilisin-like serine proteases (subtilases) in association with this increased disease tolerance. Gene expression analysis of two candidate subtilases was performed in seven cultivars with different levels of susceptibility to P. viticola. Two P. viticola isolates with different degrees of virulence were tested. Our results show that subtilases display different patterns of expression: Cucumisin exhibits peaks of expression, while VviSBT5.3a presents a bimodal behaviour. Nevertheless, both subtilases have a more pronounced response to the more virulent P. viticola isolate, which supports the hypothesis that the two subtilases are involved in the early events of the defense mechanisms.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
The present work was supported by: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) funded fellowships and contracts to Andreia Figueiredo and Catarina Gouveia: IF/00819/2015, SFRH/BD/142859/2018. FCT funded the Research Units and project: BioISI (UID/MULTI/04046/2019) and the project PTDC/BIA-BQM/28539/2017.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by GC, SZ and TM. Analyses were performed by CG and AF. The manuscript was written by CG, AF, GB and RM. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Table S1
Oligonucleotide sequences, amplicon length, amplification efficiency, annealing, and melting temperature for target and reference genes analysed by qPCR. (DOCX 18.8 KB)
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Gouveia, C., Zukic, S., Manthey, T. et al. Subtilisin like proteins in the war between Grapevine and Plasmopara viticola isolates with contrasting aggressiveness. Eur J Plant Pathol 159, 433–439 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-020-02155-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-020-02155-x