HSP17.4 mediates salicylic acid and jasmonic acid pathways in the regulation of resistance to Colletotrichum gloeosporioides in strawberry

In this study, we used virus‐mediated gene silencing technology and found that the HSP17.4 gene‐silenced cultivar Sweet Charlie plants were more susceptible to Colletotrichum gloeosporioides than the wild‐type Sweet Charlie, and the level of infection was even higher than that of the susceptible cultivar Benihopp. The results of differential quantitative proteomics showed that after infection with the pathogen, the expression of the downstream response genes NPR1, TGA, and PR‐1 of the salicylic acid (SA) signalling pathway was fully up‐regulated in the wild‐type Sweet Charlie, and the expression of the core transcription factor MYC2 of the jasmonic acid (JA) pathway was significantly down‐regulated. The expression of the proteins encoded by these genes did not change significantly in the HSP17.4‐silenced Sweet Charlie, indicating that the expression of HSP17.4 activated the up‐regulation of downstream signals of SA and inhibited the JA signal pathway. The experiments that used SA, methyl jasmonate, and their inhibitors to treat plants provide additional evidence that the antagonism between SA and JA regulates the resistance of strawberry plants to C. gloeosporioides. HSP17.4 can activate the salicylic acid pathway and synergistically suppress the jasmonic acid signal, contributing to the resistance of strawberry plants to Colletotrichum gloeosporioides.