Differential Gene Expression Study of Fusarium oxyporum Upon Interaction with Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) via Artificial Induction Model

Fusarium oxyporum is a pathogenic fungus that is responsible for severe plant diseases on many economically important crops including Piper nigrum L. One of these, a destructive disease commonly known as Fusarium wilt, has led to an economic loss in Malaysian pepper industry. The molecular pathogenicity arsenal of the F. oxyporum in response to the infection was investigated. Current work presented the development of an artificial induction model for the study of the differentially expressed gene transcripts of F. oxyporum upon its interaction with Piper nigrum L. The assessment of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during pre induction and post-induction was done by Differential-Display Reverse-Transcriptase PCR (DDRT-PCR) by cDNA-RAPD approach, and the identified DEGs were sequenced. Based on the models tested: In-situ Induction Models and In-vitro Induction Models, the In-vitro Induction Model 6 (ivIM6) was established and selected as the most suitable artificial induction model due to its feasibility in pathogen visualization, effective sampling strategy and elimination of endophytic contamination. By utilizing the optimized four RAPD primers, a total of seven DEGs were identified and sequenced. Out of seven DEGs, three DEGs were up regulated and four DEGs were down-regulated by the employment of DDRT-PCR via cDNA RAPD approach. The bioinformatics analyses of the up-regulated transcripts were revealed to be involved in the F. oxyporum morphogenesis and pathogenicity mechanism