ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of Infection of Potato Plants by Phytophthora infestans on Pathway Signaling of TUB and PR5 Genes

Late blight, caused by the pathogen Phytophthora infestans is an economical disease of potato worldwide. To better understand mechanisms of potato to resist this fungus, pathway signaling of TUB and PR5 were monitored using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) across four time points post infection. Results demonstrated that significant variance in the expression profiles of both genes in infected potato plants as compared to the non-infected controls. It is also notable that TUB and PR5 genes have a higher and faster expression in the resistant cultivar ‘Spunta’ as compared to the susceptible one ‘Draga’ with a maximum expression for TUB (1.8 and 1.4-fold) and PR5 (3.5 and 1.2-fold) respectively, at 48 hours post infection. Our data suggest that TUB and PR5 genes, positively regulate P. infestans—resistance in potato plants during disease progress, which can provide testable hypotheses that will need direct future experiments to define how these pathway signaling of both genes may be specified in potato defense system.