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Not AvailableSugarcane, the essential sugar and biofuel crop cultivated in tropics and subtropics worldwide, faces uncertainty in sustainable production and yield due to various biotic and abiotic factors. Among them, the fungal disease red rot (Colletotrichum falcatum) is a devastating disease that results in loss to farmers' economic livelihood and the elimination of cultivated varieties due to severe disease epidemics. Development of resistant varieties is a viable option for a sustainable solution. Studies in the past explored the sugarcane resistance mechanism that helped to understand the host defense and associated gene transcripts. In lieu of developing suitable markers associated with red rot resistance, we studied the temporal expression of nine selected red rot resistance-associated candidate gene transcripts in sugarcane x C. falcatum interaction on a set of sugarcane varieties after the pathogen challenge. The resulted expression analyses of the selected resistance-associated gene transcript showed differential expression during compatible and incompatible interactions. In the resistant variety it showed efficient defense responses as early recognition and defense response to the red rot pathogen compared to the susceptible one. Further, the selected resistance-associated gene transcripts have the potential to be explored for use in screening sugarcane varieties for red rot resistance traitsNot Availabl

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Not AvailableSugarcane crop, the major source of sugar is a high value commercial crop. The importance of the crop is growing as it has the potential to boost the green fuel production and various other eco-friendly products. The fungal disease, red rot (Colletotrichum falcatum) is a dreadful one and studying the dynamics of host-pathogen interaction is essential to develop disease resistant varieties. Earlier, the role of 3-deoxyanthocyanidin phytoalexins in red rot resistance was established. Further studies were made to assess antifungal activities of these compounds against C. falcatum through in vitro assays. Since phenyl propanoid biosynthesis pathway is the major secondary metabolite producing pathway which leads to production of flavonoids, isoflavonoids and lignin, studies were made to explore expression dynamics in major gene transcripts involved in anthocyanidin pathway by qRT-PCR. Our studies showed antifungal nature of the sugarcane phytoalexins 3-deoxy anthocyanidins compounds, apigeninidin and luteolinidin along with differential expression of transcripts involved in the phytoalexin biosynthesis pathway during compatible and incompatible interactionsNot Availabl

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Not AvailableThe microRNAs role in various cellular and metabolic functions is gaining more limelight in line with second-generation NGS technology. For the validation of candidate miRNA genes, the quantitative real-time PCR is the widely trusted and efficient method to follow. Sugarcane miRNAs are less explored in sugarcane defense response during their interaction with Colletotrichum falcatum inciting red rot. Further, for RT-qPCR experiments involving sugarcane miRNAs expression studies, a stable internal reference gene is required. Hence we have taken a study involving 20 candidate genes to identify stable expressing reference genes using NormFinder, geNorm, BestKeeper, and delta Ct statistical algorithms. The candidate reference gene included miRNAs and protein-coding genes. The results indicated that there is a variation in ranking among the algorithms. We found miR1862c as the stably expressed miRNA reference gene among the candidates and miR444b.2 along miR1862c formed the best reference gene pair combination, which can be used in the experiments aiming to explore sugarcane miRNAs in the defense mechanism against C. falcatum. The stable miRNA reference gene was further validated with other lesser stable reference gene candidates to assess the effect of stable reference genes during normalization. The present study evaluating the sugarcane miRNAs as reference genes for normalizing RT-qPCR expression data involving miRNAs during sugarcane x C. falcatum interaction is the first of its kind. Further, this systematic approach can be followed to assess the reference gene in various experimental conditions involving sugarcane miRNAsNot Availabl

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Not AvailableResistance against the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum falcatum causing red rot is one of the most desirable traits for sustainable crop cultivation in sugarcane. To gain new insight into the host defense mechanism against C. falcatum, we studied the role of sugarcane microRNAs during compatible and incompatible interactions by adopting the NGS platform. We have sequenced a total of 80 miRNA families that comprised 980 miRNAs, and the putative targets of the miRNAs include transcription factors, membrane-bound proteins, glutamate receptor proteins, lignin biosynthesis proteins, signaling cascade proteins, transporter proteins, mitochondrial proteins, ER proteins, defense-related, stress response proteins, translational regulation proteins, cell proliferation, and ubiquitination proteins. Further, qRT-PCR analyses of 8 differentially regulated miRNAs and 26 gene transcript targets expression indicated that these miRNAs have a regulatory effect on the expression of respective target genes in most of the cases. Also, the results suggest that certain miRNA regulates many target genes that are involved in inciting early responses to the pathogen infection, signaling pathways, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and resistance gene activation through feedback response from various cellular processes during the compatible and incompatible interaction with the red rot pathogen C. falcatum. The present study revealed the role of sugarcane miRNAs and their target genes during sugarcane - C. falcatum interaction and provided new insight into the miRNA mediated defense mechanism in sugarcane for the first timeNot Availabl