向日葵黄萎病是由大丽轮枝菌引起的世界性病害，现已成为我国向日葵上分布最广危害最重的病害。利用弱毒菌株防治植物病害受到研究者的重视，其具有无毒对环境无污染等优点。本课题前期研究表明，来源不同的轮枝菌对向日葵在致病力上具有显著差异，并已证实轮枝菌弱毒菌株能增强向日葵对强毒菌株的抗性。本课题拟进一步验证轮枝菌弱毒菌株增强向日葵抗黄萎病作用，并重点研究其抗性增强的分子机制，即通过新一代高通量Illumina测序及生物信息学分析，选出抗病相关功能基因，再利用Real-Time PCR技术分析抗病相关基因的时空表达和进行功能预测，并克隆抗病相关基因全长cDNA，确定目标功能基因，再通过转基因模式植物进行功能验证。课题的完成为利用真菌弱毒菌株生产高效特异的生防制剂提供理论依据，为向日葵黄萎病的防治提供新的思路，既可以减少化学防治造成的环境污染，又减轻了因病菌变异造成不断培育向日葵抗病新品种的繁重负担。

Verticillium wilt of sunflowers caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb. is a world-wide disease and caused serious damages in our country. No effective disease control method is available for practical application. Great attention has been paid to the research on biological control by using hypovirulent strains of a pathogen because of its safety and lower pollution to the environment. But there are few reports about hypovirulent strains of V. dahliae and their biocontrol mechanisms. Our previous study revealed that a significant difference in pathogenicity exists among the V. dahliae strains collected from different areas and hosts. Some low-virulent strains could induce host resistance against the infection by high-virulent strains, and improve sunflower yield and quality. This study will confirm the capacity of hypovirulent verticillium strains on the disease resistance induction, and further focus on the mechanisms involved in. Next-generation high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques (Illumina) and bioinformatics will be employed to dig out the defense-related sunflower genes, and the real-time qPCR will be used for studying the expression of specific genes and for function prediction. Full length cDNA of selected genes will be cloned and transfered into model plants for the function verification. This project may shed new light on the mechanisms of plant resistance triggered by hypovirulent pathogens, and provide an alternative method for the management of sunflower verticillium wilt.