Transcriptome Analysis Identified Core Genes Involved in Maize Resistance to Rhizoctonia Solani

Abstract

BackgroundBanded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB) caused by the necrotrophic fungus Rhizoctonia solani is a devasting disease on maize worldwide, especially in China and Southeast Asia. It is important to understand the interaction mechanism between maize and R. solani for control of invasion and expansion.ResultsIn this study, the expression profile of maize infected by low virulence strain (LVS) and high virulence strain (HVS) of R. solani for 3 and 5 d was analyzed by RNA-sequencing. A total of 3015 and 1628 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified under LVS and HVS infection, respectively. Meanwhile, these DEGs were classified by Gene Ontology (GO) for biological process analysis. Only defense-related GO terms were commonly enriched in LVS- and HVS-regulated genes. Furthermore, a core set of 388 up-regulated genes that are involved in maize response to R. solani infection were identified. Additionally, among the core genes, overexpressing ZmNAC41 and ZmBAK1 enhanced rice resistance to R. solani.ConclusionThe results in this study provide additional insight into maize defense mechanisms against R. solani, and the core genes identified in this study will be important resources for improving BLSB resistance in the future.

Identification and characterization of pathogenicity-related genes of Rhizoctonia solani AG3 during tobacco infection

“…Recently, the R. solani infection mechanism and host defense mechanisms were examined at the genomic and transcriptomic levels. These studies included the following: R. solani AG1-IA, which causes SBD in rice ( Wang et al., 2022 ), banded leaf and sheath blight in maize ( Cao et al., 2021 ), and foliar blight in soybean ( Yamamoto et al., 2019 ); R. solani AG1-IB, which causes bottom rot in lettuce ( Verwaaijen et al., 2017 ); and several other pathosystems. In a previous transcriptomic study that involved hyphal growth on media and also studied the interaction between R. solani AG3-PT and potato sprouts at the early and late infection stages, peptidase-encoding genes showed strong differential expression at an early infection stage, and hydrolase-encoding genes targeting cell wall components were highly induced at the late infection stage ( Zrenner et al., 2021 ).…”