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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

A Rapid Image-based Bacterial Virulence Assay Using Amoeba
Published on: June 27, 2018
Transcriptome analysis reveals downregulation of virulence-associated genes expression in a low virulence
Lirong Jin1,2, Dong Chen3, Shengjie Liao3
1Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management Crops in Central China, Ministry of Agriculture. P. R. China, Hubei Key Laboratory of Crop Disease, Insect Pests and Weeds Control; Plant Protection, Soil and Fertilizer Research Institute, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, 430064, China.
Abstract:
Verticillium dahliae causes wilt diseases and early senescence in numerous plants, including agricultural crops such as cotton. In this study, we studied two closely related V. dahliae strains, and found that V991w showed significantly reduced virulence on cotton than V991b. Comprehensive transcriptome analysis revealed various differentially expressed genes between the two strains, with more genes repressed in V991w. The downregulated genes in V991w were involved in production of hydrophobins, melanin, predicted aflatoxin, and membrane proteins, most of which are related to pathogenesis and multidrug resistance. Consistently, melanin production in V991w in vitro was compromised. We next obtained genomic variations between the two strains, demonstrating that transcription factor genes containing fungi specific transcription factor domain and fungal Zn2-Cys6 binuclear cluster domain were enriched in V991w, which might be related to pathogenicity-related genes downregulation. Thus, this study supports a model in which some virulence factors involved in V. dahliae pathogenicity were pre-expressed during in vitro growth before host interaction.
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