Transcriptome profiling of tomato response to phytoplasma infection

Transcriptome sequencing is a valuable tool, which allows the researchers to study the dynamics of gene expression and identify genes, which control economically important traits. In this work, genes involved in tomato response to ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’, a bacterial pathogen which can cause severe economic losses, were studied by transcriptome sequencing. As a result, 143 genes were found to be differentially expressed in the infected tomato plants, compared to healthy plants, 81 were upregulated and 62 downregulated. This analysis can shed light on the mechanisms of phytoplasma induced host gene expression regulation and on tomato response to phytoplasma infection.