Comparison of leaf transcriptome in response to Rhizoctonia solani infection between resistant and susceptible rice cultivars

Abstract

Background: Sheath blight (SB), caused by Rhizoctonia solani, is a common rice disease worldwide. Currently, rice cultivars with robust resistance to R. solani are still lacking. To provide theoretic basis for molecular breeding of R. solani-resistant rice cultivars, the changes of transcriptome profiles in response to R. solani infection were compared between a moderate resistant cultivar (Yanhui-888, YH) and a susceptible cultivar (Jingang-30, JG). Results: In the present study, 3085 differentially express genes (DEGs) were detected between the infected leaves and the control in JG, with 2853 DEGs in YH. A total of 4091 unigenes were significantly upregulated in YH than in JG before infection, while 3192 were significantly upregulated after infection. Further analysis revealed that YH and JG showed similar molecular responses to R. solani infection, but the responses were earlier in JG than in YH. Expression levels of trans-cinnamate 4-monooxygenase (C4H), ethylene-insensitive protein 2 (EIN2), transcriptome factor WRKY33 and the KEGG pathway plant-pathogen interaction were significantly affected by R. solani infection. More importantly, these components were all over-represented in YH cultivar than in JG cultivar before and/or after infection. Conclusions: These genes possibly contribute to the higher resistance of YH to R. solani than JG and were potential target genes to molecularly breed R. solani-resistant rice cultivar.

Genome‐wide analysis of mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinase gene family expression in response to biotic and abiotic stresses in sugarcane

“…Yang et al (2015) suggested that MPKs are transcriptionally responsive to Xoo infection and that these genes may be directly or indirectly involved in rice–pathogen interactions (Yang et al 2015). Recently, a study by Shi et al (2020) revealed that a greater number of MAPK signaling pathway genes were down‐regulated in a susceptible cultivar (Jingang‐30) compared to a moderately resistant cultivar (Yanhui‐888), which likely enhanced the susceptibility of the Jingang‐30 cultivar to rice sheath blight caused by Rhizoctonia solani .…”

Strategies to Manage Rice Sheath Blight: Lessons from Interactions between Rice and Rhizoctonia solani

“…Particularly in the early stage of infection, plants prevent pathogen infection by enhancing cell wall lignification and producing a variety of secondary metabolites. Comprehensive KEGG enrichment analyses also indicate that phenylpropanoid and phenylalanine metabolism plays an important role in preventing infection in RSB resistant varieties (Kwon et al 2014 ; Shi et al 2020 ; Zhang et al 2017 ).…”

“…The ethylene insensitive mutant sickle ( skl ) is highly susceptible to R. solani AG8, while the transgenic plants overexpressing ethylene response factors (ERFs) or the ethylene biosynthesis enzyme ACS2 exhibit resistance to R. solani (Anderson et al 2010 ; Anderson et al 2018 ; Helliwell et al 2013 ). Ethylene-insensitive protein 2 (EIN2) is significantly up-regulated in the resistant and susceptible rice varieties during R. solani infection (Shi et al 2020 ). These findings support that ethylene signaling positively regulates rice resistance to RSB.…”

“…Various types of transcription factors are often involved in regulating different phytohormone signaling, and thereby modulating rice defenses against sheath blight. WRKY70 acts as an activator of SA-induced genes and a repressor of JA-responsive genes (Shi et al 2020 ; Zhang et al 2017 ). The transcription factor RAVL1 negatively regulates rice resistance to R. solani through activating the expression of brassinosteroid-related genes (Helliwell et al 2011 ; Yuan et al 2018 ).…”

“…No cultivar with complete resistance has been identified after screening of thousands of rice cultivars from various rice growing regions (Li et al 2019a ; Molla et al 2020 ; Shi et al 2020 ). Due to the lack of resistant germplasms to RSB, successes in conventional breeding programs for RSB resistant varieties are very limited.…”