Histological and Gene Expression Analyses in Banana Reveals the Pathogenic Differences between Races 1 and 4 of Banana Fusarium Wilt Pathogen

f. sp. , the causative agent of Panama disease, is classified into three races: 1, 2, and 4. However, the histological characteristics, the accumulation of fusaric acid (FA), and resistant gene expression in banana infected with different races remain unclear. In this study, we compared the infection processes, FA contents, and gene expression levels in a Cavendish banana cultivar ( AAA Brazilian) inoculated with 1 and 4. Results showed that 4 can rapidly extend from the roots to the leaves, whereas 1 expands slowly from the roots to the rhizomes but cannot expand further upward. In addition, the colonization of plants by 4 was significantly higher compared with 1, as was the content of FA in those infected plant tissues. We observed that a large amount of starch granules was produced in the rhizomes and the number of starch granules was significantly higher after infection with 1 than after infection with 4. We further found that starch has an important inhibitory effect on the phytotoxicity induced by FA, thus leading to more resistance to the pathogens in the plants with high amounts of starch accumulation than in those with a low amount of starch accumulation. Moreover, the expression levels of 10 defense-related genes were analyzed and the results showed that the induction levels of those genes were higher after infection with 1 than after infection with 4. These results suggest that the observed differences in the invasion of host tissues and FA accumulation, and the number of starch granules and expression of defense-related genes, may contribute to a difference in virulence between the two races and the resulting difference in host resistance response, respectively.