Host Gamma Aminobutyric Acid Metabolic Pathway is involved in Resistance against Rhizoctonia solani

Rhizoctonia solani is a highly destructive necrotrophic fungal pathogen having a diverse host range, including rice and tomato. Previously R. solani infection in rice has been found to cause large-scale readjustment in host primary metabolism and accumulation of various stress associated metabolites such as gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA). In this study, we report upregulation of GABA shunt genes during pathogenesis of R. solani in rice as well as tomato. The exogenous application of GABA provided partial resistance against R. solani infection in both the hosts. Further, using virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) approach, we knocked down the expression of some of the tomato genes involved in GABA biosynthesis (glutamate decarboxylase; GAD) and GABA catabolism (GABA-transaminase; GABA-T and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase; SSADH) to study their role in host defense against R. solani infection. The silencing of each of these genes was found to enhance disease susceptibility in tomato. Overall the results from gene expression analysis, exogenous chemical treatment and gene silencing studies suggest that GABA pathway plays a positive role in plant resistance against necrotrophic fungal pathogen R. solani.