In planta expression profiles of five Fusarium fujikuroi species complex (FFC) isolates revealed common and different sets of up-regulated genes

The five FFC strains analyzed are able to penetrate maize roots and grow invasively, the efficiency of this growth as well as the ability to subsequently grow in other parts of maize plants differ significantly. To gain insight into these differences, we examined the transcriptome of the five isolates in infected maize roots with that of in vitro (CM agar) growing fungi by a RNA sequencing approach. To get insight into the transcriptional changes during maize root infection we compared the transcriptome of the five isolates in infected maize roots with that of in vitro (CM agar) growing fungi by a RNA sequencing approach. The maize seedlings were grown in sterile vermiculite in glass tubes and artificially inoculated with conidia suspensions of the five strains. Root samples were taken 4, 10 and 20 dpi for RNA isolation. In addition, the maize gene expression of uninfected seedlings (sample 21) was compared with maize gene expression in response to infection by the five isolates.