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

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.