Transcriptome profiling of maize anthers infected by Ustilago maydis

Two-organism transcriptome profiling of infected maize anthers demonstrated that there are anther-specific gene expression programs for both the pathogen and the host. Two-dye, competitive microarray hybridizations were performed on Agilent oligo arrays. Confocal microscopy on other anthers demonstrated that U. maydis was in contact with all anther lobe cell types by 3 days post-infection and that the pathogen disrupted both host cell division and cell expansion patterns. Four replicates comparing mock and infected samples at 3dpi for anthers of 0.3 - 0.6 mm. maize, pathogen, fungus, Ustilago