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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Cork oak decline in Mediterranean forests is a complex phenomenon, observed with
remarkable frequency in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, causing the weakening and
death of these woody plants. The defoliation of the canopy, the presence of dry peripheral branches,
and exudations on the trunk are visible symptoms used for the prognosis of decline, complemented
by the presence of Phytophthora cinnamomi identified in the rhizosphere of the trees and adjacent
soils. Recently, a large proteomic dataset obtained from the leaves of cork oak plants inoculated and
non-inoculated with P. cinnamomi has become available. We explored it to search for an optimal set of
proteins, markers of the biological pattern of interaction with the oomycete. Thus, using published
data from the cork oak leaf proteome, we mathematically modelled the problem as an α, β-k-Feature
Set Problem to select molecular markers. A set of proteins (features) that represent dominant effects
on the host metabolism resulting from pathogen action on roots was found. These results contribute
to an early diagnosis of biochemical changes occurring in cork oak associated with P. cinnamomi
infection. We hypothesize that these markers may be decisive in identifying trees that go into decline
due to interactions with the pathogen, assisting the management of cork oak forest ecosystems.
Description
Keywords
Quercus suber Phytophthora cinnamomi Cork oak decline Protein markers (α, β)-k-Feature Set Problem Cover problems
Citation
Forests 13 (6): 940 (2022)
Publisher
MDPI