Transcriptome analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana and Lotus japonicus exposed to arbuscular mycorrhizae

Key genes involved in symbiosis have been lost in nonmycorrhizal plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana. We studied the effects on gene expression in A. thaliana expressing an abbreviated, functional version of one of genes, the transcription factor Interacting Protein of DMI3 (IPD3-min), under low nutrient conditions in the presence and absence of a mycorrhizal fungi, Rhizophagus. We conducted the same transcriptome analysis with a cyclops-4 knockout mutant in Lotus japonicus to compare with the expression profile of a mycorrhizal host model lacking IPD3. Total RNA was extracted from six-week-old root tissue of A. thaliana wildtype and IPD3-min transgenic plants as well as L. japonicus wildtype and cyclops-4 knockout mutants. Differential gene expression was studied in plants grown with and without the presence of Rhizophagus arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) on 1/2 MS and low-nutrient media.