title: Divergent Expression Patterns in Two Vernicia Species Revealed the Potential Role of the Hub Gene VmAP2/ERF036 in Resistance to Fusarium oxysporum in Vernicia montana.
abstract: Tung oil tree (Vernicia fordii) is a promising industrial oil crop; however, this tree is highly susceptible toFusariumwilt disease. Conversely,Vernicia montanais resistant to the pathogen. The APETALA2/ethylene-responsive element binding factor (AP2/ERF) transcription factor superfamily has been reported to play a significant role in resistance toFusarium oxysporum. In this study, comprehensive analysis identified 75 and 81 putativeVf/VmAP2/ERFtranscription factor-encoding genes inV.fordiiandV.montana, respectively, which were divided into AP2, ERF, related to ABI3 and VP1 (RAV) and Soloist families. AfterF. oxysporuminfection, a majority of AP2/ERF superfamily genes showed strong patterns of repression in bothV.fordiiandV.montana. We then identified 53 pairs of one-to-one orthologs inV. fordiiandV. montana, with most pairs of orthologous genes exhibiting similar expression in response to the pathogen. Further investigation ofVf/VmAP2/ERFgene expression in plant tissues indicated that the pairs of genes with different expression patterns in response toF. oxysporumtended to exhibit different tissue profiles in the two species. In addition,VmAP2/ERF036, showing the strongest interactions with 666 genes, was identified as a core hub gene mediating resistance. Moreover, qRT-PCR results indicatedVmAP2/ERF036showed repressed expression while its orthologous geneVfAP2/ERF036had the opposite expression pattern during pathogen infection. Overall, comparative analysis of theVf/VmAP2/ERFsuperfamily and indication of a potential hub resistance gene in resistant and susceptibleVerniciaspecies provides valuable information for understanding the molecular basis and selection of essential functional genes forV.fordiigenetic engineering to controlFusariumwilt disease.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China. zhangqy@caf.ac.cn.|Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou 311400, China. zhangqy@caf.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Qiyan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China. 4862705@163.com.|Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou 311400, China. 4862705@163.com.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China. wuliwenhappy@163.com.|Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou 311400, China. wuliwenhappy@163.com.
authors.forename: Liwen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China. wyd11111@126.com.|Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou 311400, China. wyd11111@126.com.
authors.forename: Yangdong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China. chenyc@caf.ac.cn.|Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou 311400, China. chenyc@caf.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yicun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: AP2/ERF transcription factor; Fusarium wilt disease; gene expression network; hub gene; tung oil tree