Considering the roles of abscisic acid and stomatal movement in the interaction between the necrotroph Pyrenophora triticirepentis and wheat

Apple stem grooving virus (ASGV) is one of the most widely distributed plant viruses around the world, infecting various plant genera with a positive rate of up to 60% in some apple orchards. To understand how apples respond to ASGV infection, RNA-based transcriptional profiling (RNA-seq) was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in leaves of an apple variety prior and after a thermotherapy treatment for ASGV eradication. Libraries from total RNA of three replicates of each 4-year-old infected and non-infected apple tree clones were sequenced by Illumina NextSeq500 system. We identified 1,773 DEGs (FDR 2) of which 204 and 1,569 were down and up-regulated in the infected clones, respectively. Functional annotation based on gene ontology (GO) and KEGG enrichment pathway analysis indicated that up-regulated DEGs were predominately involved in biological processes, DNA replication, metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, phenylpropanoid, and flavonoid. Genes activated by infection also corresponded to transcription factors (MYB, WRKY, bZIP, NAC) and synthesis of defense-relatedmetabolites, including pathogenesis-related genes. GO terms related to response to oxidative stress and a KEGG pathway (Proteinprocessing in endoplasmic reticulum), including molecular chaperones such as the heat shock family of stress proteins, were significantly enriched on down-regulated DEGs. The information obtained in this study shed light on the molecular-genetic mechanisms of the apple and ASGV interaction.