Mutation of PUB21 in tomato leads to reduced susceptibility to necrotrophic fungi

Background: Cultivated tomato is susceptible to necrotrophic pathogens Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria solani. No dominant resistance against these pathogens has been reported in wild relatives of tomato. Results: Through screening of a tomato Micro-Tom EMS population we identified a mutant that showed decreased susceptibility to both necrotrophic fungi. Previously, we reported a mutation in the tomato PUB17 gene as the cause of reduced susceptibility in this mutant. Surprisingly, M4 progeny of one M3 plant homozygous for the pub17 mutation showed segregation with some plants displaying an even higher level of resistance than the pub17 mutant. This highly resistant progeny was shown to contain a mutation in tomato PUB21 in addition to the mutation in PUB17. The role of PUB21 as a susceptibility factor for both necrotrophic fungi was confirmed in RNAi-silenced and CRISPR-mutated transformants. Conclusions: In this study we identified a new PUB gene, SlPUB21, involved in susceptibility of tomato to necrotrophic pathogens. We showed that mutation of this gene resulted in increased resistance against these pathogens.