Comparative transcriptomic and weighted gene co-expression network analysis to identify the core genes in the cultivars of Musa acuminata under both infected and chemical perturbated conditions

ABSTRACT

Banana is a high nutrient crop, which ranks fourth in terms of gross value production. Fusarium wilt of banana, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (FocTR4), is considered the most destructive disease leading to the complete loss of production of the Cavendish cultivars Berangan, Brazilian and Williams, which are vulnerable to the infection of FocTR4. However, the treatment with benzothiadiazole, a synthetic salicylic analog, is aimed to induce resistance in plants. Thus, the treatments pertaining to the banana plants subjected to the Foc infection within the chosen cultivars were compared with chemically treated samples obtained at different time intervals for a short duration (0–4 days). The integrated omics analyses considering the parameters of WGCNA, functional annotation, and protein–protein interactions revealed that many pathways have been negatively influenced in Cavendish bananas under FocTR4 infections and the number of genes influenced also increased over time in Williams cultivar. Furthermore, elevation in immune response and resistance genes were also observed in the roots of the Cavendish banana.

KEYWORDS:

• Banana
• DEGs
• Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense TR4
• transcriptomics
• WGCNA

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Department of Bioinformatics, Pondicherry University, for providing all the necessary infrastructure for this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors without undue reservation to any qualified researcher.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15592324.2023.2269675

Additional information

Funding

The fund for this study was received from Pondicherry University.