Pathogenic study on jujube witches’ broom disease through multi-omics analysis

Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujube Mill.), also called Zao in Chinese, originated in China, is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees in the world and the most economically valuable species in the family Rhamnaceae. Jujube witches’ broom (JWB) disease, also called Zaofeng disease, is the most destructive disease threaten jujube industry.
It is caused by JWB phytoplasma (Candidatus phytoplasma ziziphi), typical symptoms include witches’ broom, leafy flower, yellow and little leaf, stunting and decline, resulting in yield loss and fruit quality deterioration.
To understand the pathological mechanism of JWB, infection and elimination experiments were performed, combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomics methods were applied to analyze the interaction of jujube and phytoplasma.
Gene families related to biotic stress were identified through genome mining namely 21 TCP, 145 AP2/ERF, 84 NAC, 69 WRKY and 13 LOX gene family members.
Transcriptome sequencing revealed 8341 and 4382 DEGs during the infection and elimination experiment, respectively.
The iTRAQ proteome analysis and metabolism analysis revealed that genes involved in the JA, SA, and GA pathway may play an important role in jujube-phytoplasma interaction.
The current study provides molecular basis for understanding the jujube-phytoplasma interaction.
Further study on JWB should focus on the phytoplasma effector screen and clarify the function mechanism, with accurate detection and application of antibiotic, and development of physical control methods.

V International Jujube Symposium

Q.Q. Yang, Q.C. Li, P. Chen, Y. Zhang, Y.J. Huang, J.D. Li, J.C. Feng

Ziziphus jujuba Mill., phytoplasma, infection, elimination, RNA-seq, iTRAQ, metabolome

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1350.34