Genome-Wide Identification and Functional Analyses of the CRK Gene Family in Cotton Reveals GbCRK18 Confers Verticillium Wilt Resistance in Gossypium barbadense

• Published in: Frontiers in plant science Vol. 9; p. 1266
• Main Authors: Li, Ting-Gang, Zhang, Dan-Dan, Zhou, Lei, Kong, Zhi-Qiang, Hussaini, Adamu S, Wang, Dan, Li, Jun-Jiao, Short, Dylan P G, Dhar, Nikhilesh, Klosterman, Steven J, Wang, Bao-Li, Yin, Chun-Mei, Subbarao, Krishna V, Chen, Jie-Yin, Dai, Xiao-Feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 11-09-2018
• Subjects: cotton; cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs); defense response; expression profiling; Plant Science; Verticillium wilt; cotton; defense response; cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs); expression profiling; Verticillium wilt
• ISSN: 1664-462X; 1664-462X
• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.01266

Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (
) are a large subfamily of plant receptor-like kinases that play a critical role in disease resistance in plants. However, knowledge about the
gene family in cotton and its function against Verticillium wilt (VW), a destructive disease caused by
that significantly reduces cotton yields is lacking. In this study, we identified a total of 30 typical
in a
genome (
). Eleven of these (>30%) are located on the A06 and D06 chromosomes, and 18 consisted of 9 paralogous pairs encoded in the A and D subgenomes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the
could be classified into four broad groups, the expansion of which has probably been driven by tandem duplication. Gene expression profiling of the
in resistant and susceptible cotton cultivars revealed that a phylogenetic cluster of nine of the
genes were up-regulated in response to
infection. Virus-induced gene silencing of each of these nine
independently revealed that the silencing of
was sufficient to compromise VW resistance in
. GbCRK18 expression could be induced by
infection or jasmonic acid, and displayed plasma membrane localization. Therefore, our expression analyses indicated that the
gene family is differentially regulated in response to Verticillium infection, while gene silencing experiments revealed that
in particular confers VW resistance in
.