Transcription profiling by array of two genotypes of wheat to study their response to Fusarium head blight

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a disease of wheat and other cereal crops, where, among other species, Fusarium graminearum infects the wheat inflorescence. Microarrays were used to observe differential gene expression in FHB-challenged spikes of the two European winter wheat genotypes Dream (moderately resistant) and Lynx (susceptible). Plants were either inoculated with the Fusarium graminearum strain IFA 65 (IFA Tulln) (500 macroconidia/floret) or were as control plants mock treated with desalted water. The inocula were injected into four spikelets at early anthesis and spikelets were later on collected at 32 and 72 h after inoculation. Four plants were sampled per genotype/treatment/sampling date. Total RNA was extracted from collected spikelets, and microarray analysis was performed using the Affymetrix Wheat GeneChip.

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