Effect of Macrophomina phaseolina on growth and expression of defense related genes in Arabidopsis thaliana

Infection caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina leads to changes in the growth, development, and metabolism in plants. Plants produce defense responses as a result of infection. The present study was designed to evaluate the defense responses in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana inoculated with M. phaseolina. Reduction in shoot length, root length, photosynthetic pigments, relative water content (RWC) and increase in sugar and proline contents in leaves were recorded as defense responses in the inoculated plants. Analysis of gene expression showed that among defense related genes, the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinases and thaumatin proteins increased while chitinase and beta-1,3-glucanase showed little increase compared with control plants. It is, therefore, concluded that defense related genes along with increased sugar and proline may play a role in the development of resistance against M. phaseolina.