Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: STEM Research
Lieceng Zhu - Fayetteville State University
Co-Author(s): JiaZheng (John) Yuan, Jordan Oneal, and Daria Brown; Fayetteville State University ; Ming-Shun Chen, USDA-ARS and Kansas State University ; Fred Gould, North Carolina State University
This HBCU-UP-NIA project aims to reveal the molecular mechanisms of heat-induced loss of wheat resistance to Hessian fly (HF) using RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq). The project has been implemented by Fayetteville State University (FSU) in collaboration with Kansas State University (K-State) and North Carolina State University (NC-State) in research and/or student engagement. In this study, a wheat cultivar ‘Molly’ containing a resistance gene (R-gene) H13 was infested by an avirulent HF population mainly composed of biotype GP. Molly exhibits an incompatible (resistant) reaction to the avirulent HF population under ‘normal’ temperature but becomes susceptible under higher temperature. The experiment included four treatments: The control plants growing at 18°C without HF infestation (CK), the plants heat stressed at 35ºC for 6 h without infestation (Heat), the HF infested, normal temperature plants (HF_CK), and the HF infested and heat-stressed plants (HF_Heat). Samples for RNA isolation and RNA-Seq analysis were collected from the second leaf sheath sites in wheat seedlings that are typically attacked by the HF. The combined analyses of differential gene expression, gene ontology (GO) enrichment, Kegg pathway enrichment, and MapMan revealed the following: 1) Short period of heat stress, alone or in combination with HF infestation, caused dramatic changes in gene expression at feeding site tissues of wheat plants; 2) heat stress makes wheat plants more responsive to Hessian fly infestation in terms of gene expression; 3) pathways of phenylalanine metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and secondary metabolism may play critical roles in the early responses of wheat resistance to HF; 4) the regulation of HSP20 family protein seems to be associated with the heat-induced loss of wheat resistance, among many other genes. Our results also provide additional evidences to support the importance of 12-Oxo-phytodienoic acid (OPDA) in wheat resistance to HF and the heat-induced loss of wheat resistance. This research is a student-centered project through which four FSU undergraduate students have been trained in research and scientific communication since fall, 2017.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF-HBCU-UP-RIA Program Award #: 1664409
Faculty Advisor: None Listed,