Isolation and expression profiling of FaCERK1 during Colletotrichum gloeosporioides infection of strawberry plants

Strawberry is one of the favorite fruits around the world. The development of strawberry industry is limited by fungi disease. Chitin is a key component of the fungi cell wall. Chitin elicitor receptor kinase 1 (CERK1) is a plasma membrane receptor kinase that activates pathogen-triggered immunity (PTI) by recognition of chitin. The relationship between CERK1 and strawberry fungal diseases is not yet known. In the present study, we isolated full sequences of the FaCERK1 in strawberry for the first time. We compared the resistance of two strawberry cultivars 'Benihoppe' and 'Yanli' after Colletotrichum gloeosporioides infection and analyzed the expression level of FaCERK1 and defense-related genes WRKY33 and PR1. The results showed that high expression of FaCERK1 as well as defense-related genes WRKY33 and PR1 correlated with disease presence in resistant cultivar 'Yanli'. The data indicate that up-regulation of the CERK1 gene is involved in resistance against anthracnose in strawberry plants. This study makes a meaningful contribution to the elucidation of the role of plant fungal disease defense early signaling transduction.