Gene expression profiling of chitinase and β-1,3 glucanase in chickpea infected by Ascochyta blight

Abstract

Induced resistance to pathogen is one of the ways which plants use against biotic stresses. Pathogenesis-related proteins(PR), including chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase synthesized by the plant in response to pathogenic infection. In this investigation, the expression of two isoforms: acidic and basic of chitinase and β-1,3-glucanasegenes were analyzed at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours after fungal inoculation of chickpea genotypes (MCC496 as resistant and MCC403 as sensitive) with race 6 of Ascochyta rabiei by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The results showed that the expression of both acidic isoforms of chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase genes were increased at 24 and 48 hours, respectively after fungal inoculation in genotype MCC496, but the expression level in sensitive genotype increased in early time after inoculation and then decreased. The basic isoform of chitinase was expressed in sensitive genotype more than the resistant genotype. The basic isoform of β-1,3-glucanase was not expressed in these genotypes. Totally, acidic isoforms of these enzymes specifically chitinase would play roles in plant defense against Ascochyta blight

Keywords

• ascochyta blight
• chitinase
• pathogenesis-related proteins
• rt-pcr
• β-1
• 3-glucanase