Plant pathogens require lethal virulence factors, susceptible hosts, and optimal environmental conditions for disease establishment. High soil salinity, exacerbated by climate change, significantly impacts agro-biological ecosystems. However, the overall interactions between plant pathogens and salt stress are not fully characterized or understood. This study examines the effects of salt stress on representative plant pathogens: Burkholderia gladioli, Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum, and Ralstonia solanacearum. Using pan-genome-based comparative transcriptomics, we analyzed the comprehensive alterations within the biological systems of plant pathogens when treated with 200 mM NaCl. Our results highlight the differential responses between salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant pathogens to salt stress.
Overall design: To induce salt stress, 200 mM NaCl was applied to salt-sensitive (B. gladioli and R. solanacearum) and salt-tolerant (Pcc) pathogens. For each plant pathogen, cultures without NaCl addition were used as negative controls. After 2 hours of exposure to salt stress, we examined changes in gene expression patterns. Each sample was prepared in triplicate.
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