RNA sequencing of tobacco plants with typical and latent infection caused by Pectobacterium atrosepticum

Our study for the first time addresses the question of the mechanisms underlying the transformation of a latent infection (LI) into a typical infection (TI) during a plant-phytopathogen interaction. We compared two pathosystems: 1) tobacco plants infected with the wild type Pectobacterium atrosepticum, which in most cases causes typical infection related to the extensive rotting of parenchymatous tissues, and 2) tobacco plants infected with the cfa6-mutant of P. atrosepticum, which in most cases causes LI that are not associated with the degradation of parenchyma and rarely transform into TI.