title: A Network Approach of Gene Co-expression in theZea mays/Aspergillus flavusPathosystem to Map Host/Pathogen Interaction Pathways.
abstract: A gene co-expression network (GEN) was generated using a dual RNA-seq study with the fungal pathogenAspergillus flavusand its plant hostZea maysduring the initial 3 days of infection. The analysis deciphered novel pathways and mapped genes of interest in both organisms during the infection. This network revealed a high degree of connectivity in many of the previously recognized pathways inZ. mayssuch as jasmonic acid, ethylene, and reactive oxygen species (ROS). For the pathogenA. flavus, a link between aflatoxin production and vesicular transport was identified within the network. There was significant interspecies correlation of expression betweenZ. maysandA. flavusfor a subset of 104Z. mays, and 1942A. flavusgenes. This resulted in an interspecies subnetwork enriched in multipleZ. maysgenes involved in the production of ROS. In addition to the ROS fromZ. mays, there was enrichment in the vesicular transport pathways and the aflatoxin pathway forA. flavus. Included in these genes, a key aflatoxin cluster regulator, AflS, was found to be co-regulated with multipleZ. maysROS producing genes within the network, suggesting AflS may be monitoring host ROS levels. The entire GEN for both host and pathogen, and the subset of interspecies correlations, is presented as a tool for hypothesis generation and discovery for events in the early stages of fungal infection ofZ. maysbyA. flavus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University, CarbondaleIL, USA; Southern Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service, New OrleansLA, USA.
authors.forename: Bryan M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Musungu
authors.affiliation: Southern Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service, New Orleans LA, USA.
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bhatnagar
authors.affiliation: Southern Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service, New Orleans LA, USA.
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC, USA.
authors.forename: Gary A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC, USA.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: OBrian
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Soil and Agriculture Systems, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale IL, USA.
authors.forename: Ahmad M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Fakhoury
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale IL, USA.
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geisler
keywords: Aspergillus flavus; RNA-sequencing; Zea mays; gene co-expression analysis; networks