Sugarcane Smut - Gene Expression

Gene Expression

Plant disease resistance is the result of coevolution between the plant and pathogen. During Ustilago scitaminea infection, the fungus grows within the meristematic tissue and induces formation of flowering structures, which it colonises to produce its teliopores. The flowering structures, usually typical grass panicles, are transformed into a whip-like sorus that grows rapidly and protrudes out between the leaf sheaths. The development of sugarcane smut depends on the interaction among environment, the sugarcane variety and the pathogen itself. If the interaction between smut-resistant varieties and the pathogen is nonaffinity, disease resistance occurs; however, if the interaction between smut-susceptible varieties and the pathogen is affinity, disease susceptibility occurs. A series of physiological and biochemical changes, together with the molecular response, occur during the period between the appearance of the stress on plant from the invasion of the pathogen and the subsequent plant-pathogen interaction. Progress has been made in studies of the molecular basis of sugarcane smut resistance. According to one study, the type of resistance is a single gene resistance at the N52/219 gene site. Furthermore this study talked about several different strains or races of Ustilago scitaminea. Despite what we have already learned, more studies on the molecular interaction in this pathosystem are needed to discover the mechanisms of smut resistance.