0000000000560226
AUTHOR
Weixiang Zhao
showing 3 related works from this author
Analysis of Early Host Responses for Asymptomatic Disease Detection and Management of Specialty Crops
2010
The rapid and unabated spread of vector-borne diseases within US specialty crops threatens our agriculture, our economy, and the livelihood of growers and farm workers. Early detection of vector-borne pathogens is an essential step for the accurate surveillance and management of vector-borne diseases of specialty crops. Currently, we lack the tools that would detect the infectious agent at early (primary) stages of infection with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity. In this paper, we outline a strategy for developing an integrated suite of platform technologies to enable rapid, early disease detection and diagnosis of huanglongbing (HLB), the most destructive citrus disease. The re…
Transcriptome profiling of citrus fruit response to huanglongbing disease.
2010
Huanglongbing (HLB) or "citrus greening" is the most destructive citrus disease worldwide. In this work, we studied host responses of citrus to infection with Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CaLas) using next-generation sequencing technologies. A deep mRNA profile was obtained from peel of healthy and HLB- affected fruit. It was followed by pathway and protein-protein network analysis and quantitative real time PCR analysis of highly regulated genes. We identified differentially regulated pathways and constructed networks that provide a deep insight into the metabolism of affected fruit. Data mining revealed that HLB enhanced transcription of genes involved in the light reactions of phot…
Gene regulatory networks elucidating Huanglongbing disease mechanisms
2013
Next-generation sequencing was exploited to gain deeper insight into the response to infection by Candidatus liberibacter asiaticus (CaLas), especially the immune disregulation and metabolic dysfunction caused by source-sink disruption. Previous fruit transcriptome data were compared with additional RNA-Seq data in three tissues: immature fruit, and young and mature leaves. Four categories of orchard trees were studied: symptomatic, asymptomatic, apparently healthy, and healthy. Principal component analysis found distinct expression patterns between immature and mature fruits and leaf samples for all four categories of trees. A predicted protein - protein interaction network identified HLB-…