Elucidating the host response to the fungal virulence factor NFC1
Colletotrichum tofieldiae (Ct) strain Ct3 is a pathogen at 22C under Pi sufficiency or deficiency.  However, its virulence seems to be reprogrammed depending on Pi status.  NFC1 is a virulence factor that is expressed under high Pi, but not low Pi, that contributes to root colonization in the Ct3-Arabidopsis thaliana pathosystem.  It is most strongly expressed at 2 dpi.  We here sought to identify the host response to NFC1.  To this end, we infected A. thaliana Col-0 or phf1 roots with Ct3, nfc1, nfc1+NFC1, or Mock (sterile distilled water) under high or low Pi and extracted total RNA at 2 dpi.  Because this is extremely early in the infection process, the sequencing reads are virtually entirely plant reads.