Comparison of Single Base Resolution Methylome of Two Near Isogenic Lines of Soybean, Resistant and Susceptible to Soybean Cyst Nematode

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN, Heterodera glycines) is attributed as most damaging pest for soybean crop in US. Nematodes are very host specific because of coevolution with soybean genome. Effector proteins injected in root cells by nematodes massively alters the gene expression and are very effective at facilitating establishment of a feeding site. The methylome of soybean root also undergoes significant changes post infection. We discovered that many of these changes in the methylome of the root are essential for mediation of infection by SCN. Genes overlapping with the differentially methylated regions under infected conditions were found to be involved in biological processes that can play key role in resistance. In our next project, we wanted to further dissect the gene networks of soybean involved in resistance to SCN. We generated whole methylome maps at base pair resolution for two near isogenic lines, TN016 (SCN susceptible) and TN025 (SCN resistant) under control and infected conditions. Soybean lines TN09-016 and TN09-029 are highly homozygous recombinant inbred lines derived from individual F13 generation single plants. Epigenetic modulators like DNA methylation play a key role in stress response by regulating gene expression. Comparing methylome changes between resistant and susceptible lines we identified candidate genes that may be providing resistance soybean. Our study brings us closer to elucidating the genes and molecular processes essential for SCN disease epidemiology.