Transcriptome analysis provides insights into the mechanisms underlying wheat cultivar Shumai126 responding to stripe rust

Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is a destructive fungal disease of wheat globally. Breeding resistance cultivars is one of the most cost-effective methods to control Pst. Shumai126 (SM126), a high-yielding commercial wheat cultivar, showed strong stripe rust resistance for more than ten years. However, the molecular mechanisms and the responsive genes underlying the SM126 resistance to Pst have not been explored yet. In the present study, RNA-seq was used to analyze changes in the transcriptome at different time points of Pst infection in seedling leaves of SM126. In total, 520, 148 and 1439 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found to be up- or down-regulated after Pst infection at 1, 3, and 7 days post inoculation, respectively. The majority of DEGs exhibited transient expression patterns during Pst infection at different time points. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that many biological processes, such as photosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, oxidative phosphorylation, MAPK signaling pathway, and phenylalanine metabolism are involved in SM126 response to Pst. Expression of genes involved in the plant-pathogen interaction pathway was detected and some key genes showed differential expression. DEGs encoded R proteins and transcription factors were also identified. Our study suggests the gene resources in SM126 related to stripe rust response could be valuable for understanding the mechanisms involved in stripe rust resistance and improvement of wheat resistance to Pst.