Transcription factor network analysis of the Cf-19-mediated resistance response in tomato infected by Cladosporium fulvum.

• TFs are significantly enriched in MAPK signaling pathway and the plant hormone signal transduction pathway in the early stage of Cf-19 -mediated immunity, but TFs are most significantly enriched in the MAPK signaling pathway. • EREB may be an important node between plant-pathogen interaction pathway and MAPK signaling pathway, mediating crosstalk between the two pathways through interaction with other transcription factors in the two pathways. • EREB gene silencing decreased the expression of WRKY80 gene in a different pathway (plant-pathogen interaction pathway) and reduce the disease resistance mediated by Cf-19 gene. Tomato leaf mold, caused by Cladosporium fulvum , is a common disease in tomato cultivation. The Cf-19 gene is an effective resistance gene to C. fulvum. Current studies have shown that the Cf-19 -mediated resistance response pathway is regulated by a variety of TFs. In this study, in order to better understand the role of TFs in the Cf-19 -mediated immune response of tomato against C. fulvum , differentially expressed TFs in different response stages were identified based on RNA-seq data. The results showed that a total of 37 families with 171 TF members were identified. These differentially expressed TFs were enriched in "nucleus" in the component category, "DNA-binding transcription factor activity" in the function category and "Regulation of transcription" in the process category in the Gene Ontology (GO) analysis results. Four pathways, including plant hormone signal transduction, MAPK signaling, plant-pathogen interaction and circadian rhythm, were enriched in the KEGG analysis results. Further analysis showed that 45 TFs were involved in the above four major pathways, and some TFs in different pathways had interaction relationships, which might be the key nodes mediating cross-talk between different pathways. EREB was predicted to be the core of multigroup interactions, and its interaction with WRKY80 is the node connecting the MAPK pathway and plant-pathogen interaction pathway. The function of the EREB gene was analyzed by VIGS, and it was found that the downregulated expression of this gene decreased the expression of WRKY80 and the disease resistance mediated by Cf-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]