Screening of Sugarcane Proteins Associated with Defense against subsp. , Agent of Ratoon Stunting Disease.

Sugarcane is the most important sugar crop and one of the leading energy-producing crops in the world. Ratoon stunting disease (RSD), caused by the bacterium subsp. , poses a huge threat to ratoon crops, causing a significant yield loss in sugarcane. Breeding resistant varieties is considered the most effective and fundamental approach to control RSD in sugarcane. The exploration of resistance genes forms the foundation for breeding resistant varieties through molecular technology. The gene is a pathogenicity gene in subsp. , encoding an endopolygalacturonase. In this study, the pglA gene from subsp. and related microorganisms was analyzed. Then, a non-toxic, non-autoactivating pglA bait was successfully expressed in yeast cells. Simultaneously the yeast two-hybrid library was generated using RNA from the subsp. -infected sugarcane. Screening the library with the pglA bait uncovered proteins that interacted with pglA, primarily associated with ABA pathways and the plant immune system, suggesting that sugarcane employs these pathways to respond to subsp. , triggering pathogenicity or resistance. The expression of genes encoding these proteins was also investigated in subsp. -infected sugarcane, suggesting multiple layers of regulatory mechanisms in the interaction between sugarcane and subsp. . This work promotes the understanding of plant-pathogen interaction and provides target proteins/genes for molecular breeding to improve sugarcane resistance to subsp. .