Functional Analysis of Maize SDG102 Gene in Response to Setosphaeria turcica

Northern corn leaf blight (NCLB), caused by the fungal pathogen <i>Setosphaeria turcica</i>, is a devastating foliar disease that significantly threatens maize production in China. Previous studies have demonstrated that <i>SET domain gene 102</i> (<i>SDG 102</i>), a gene encoding an H3K36 methyltransferase, plays a crucial role in regulating maize growth, development, and stress responses. This study used the wild-type (WT), <i>SDG102</i> overexpression line (OE), and silencing line (SL) of the corn inbred line B73 as materials. After artificial inoculation with <i>S. turcica</i>, the phenotypic characteristics, disease index, yield, and other related traits of different strains were compared, and RNA-Seq was used to analyze the changes in the gene expression profile. The results showed that overexpression of <i>SDG102</i> significantly inhibited pathogen spore germination and hyphal growth and enhanced the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species in plants prior to <i>S. turcica</i> infection, the opposite trend was observed in <i>SDG102</i> silencing lines. Compared with the wild-type, 1546 and 1837 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) responsive to <i>S. turcica</i> were identified in OE and SL, respectively. These differentially expressed genes primarily function in pathways such as plant-pathogen interactions, plant hormone signaling, and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. In the OE lines, genes related to plant-pathogen interactions, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and key phenylpropanoid biosynthesis genes exhibited higher expression levels. Furthermore, <i>SDG102</i> regulates the synthesis of auxin (JA) and abscisic acid (SA) as well as the transcription of their signaling pathway genes, thereby influencing maize resistance to large leaf spot disease. Under corn leaf blight conditions, <i>SDG102</i> overexpression increased yield by 9.29% compared to WT, while SL reduced yield by 10.10%. In conclusion, <i>SDG102</i> enhances maize resistance to NCLB by positively regulating the expression of disease resistance genes, antioxidant enzyme activity, and hormone-mediated defense pathways.