Integrative systems biology of wheat susceptibility to Fusarium graminearum uncovers a conserved gene regulatory network and identifies master regulators targeted by fungal core effectors.

Background: Plant diseases are driven by an intricate set of defense mechanisms counterbalanced by the expression of host susceptibility factors promoted through the action of pathogen effectors. In spite of their central role in the establishment of the pathology, the primary components of plant susceptibility are still poorly understood and challenging to trace especially in plant-fungal interactions such as in Fusarium head blight (FHB) of bread wheat. Designing a system-level transcriptomics approach, we leveraged the analysis of wheat responses from a susceptible cultivar facing Fusarium graminearum strains of different aggressiveness and examined their constancy in four other wheat cultivars also developing FHB.

Assessment of Tunisian Isolates on Wheat Seed Germination, Seedling Growth and Fusarium Seedling Blight Suppression.

Beneficial microorganisms, including members of the genus, are known for their ability to promote plant growth and disease resistance, as well as being alternatives to synthetic inputs in agriculture. In this study, 111 strains were isolated from the rhizospheric soil of Florence Aurore, an ancient wheat variety that was cultivated in an organic farming system in Tunisia. A preliminary ITS analysis allowed us to cluster these 111 isolates into three main groups, (74 isolates), (16 isolates) and sp.