Transcriptome analysis reveals that exogenous ethylene activates immune and defense responses in a high late blight resistant potato genotype

Ethylene (ET) is one of the many important signaling hormones that functions in regulating defense responses in plants. Gene expression profiling was conducted under exogenous ET application in the high late blight resistant potato genotype SD20 and the specific transcriptional responses to exogenous ET in SD20 were revealed. Analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) generated a total of 1226 ET-specific DEGs, among which transcription factors, kinases, defense enzymes and disease resistance-related genes were significantly differentially expressed. GO enrichment and KEGG metabolic pathway analysis also revealed that numerous defense regulation-related genes and defense pathways were significantly enriched. These results were consistent with the interaction of SD20 and Phytophthora infestans in our previous study, indicating that exogenous ET stimulated the defense response and initiated a similar defense pathway compared to pathogen infection in SD20. Moreover, multiple signaling pathways including ET, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, abscisic acid, auxin, cytokinin and gibberellin were involved in the response to exogenous ET, which indicates that many plant hormones work together to form a complex network to resist external stimuli in SD20. ET-induced gene expression profiling provides insights into the ET signaling transduction pathway and its potential mechanisms in disease defense systems in potato.