DDRT-PCR identification of messages showing expressional modulations in the compatible interaction between maize and the common maize rust and RT-qPCR expressional validations of selected messages

Differential display analyses of expressional modulations occurring in plant-microbe interactions provide valuable information about the physiological changes and underlying genetic factors and mechanisms involved in host resistance and susceptibility to disease. We carried out a differential display analysis study in the compatible interaction of Z. mays and P. sorghi and identified 98 Transcript Derived Fragments (TDFs) as expressional modulation showing tags. 72 TDFs were cloned and sequenced. Sequence database similarity searches revealed that there is at least one close matching GenBank record for each TDF. Compiled results showed that approximately a half of the TDFs was derived from genes with known functions, about a half of which are known to display expressional modulations in plant-microbe interactions. CA, BiP2, An2, ARP1 and ASR3-like protein encoding sequence similar TDFs constitute the prominent examples in this group. A large proportion of TDFs were found to be similar to uncharacterized/hypothetical protein encoding GenBank records. RT-qPCR primers were designed for Bip2, CA, cALDH, ARP and Arpp3 genes to verify their observed expressional modulations, which were generally confirmed except for CA. Although a limited number of TDFs were characterized, overall, the results provide an overview to the expressional modulation showing genes in the compatible interaction of the studied pathosystem.