Transcriptome Profiling of the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and Its Host Oryza sativa During Infection

Abstract

The rice blast (fungal pathogen: Magnaporthe oryzae and host: Oryza sativa) is one of the most important model pathosystems for understanding plant-microbe interactions. Although both genome sequences were published as the first cases of pathogen and host, only a few in planta transcriptome data during infection are available. Due to technical difficulties, previously reported fungal transcriptome data are not highly qualified to comprehensively profile the expression of fungal genes during infection. Here, we report the high-quality transcriptomes of M. oryzae and rice during infection using a sheath infection-based RNA sequencing approach. This comprehensive expression profiling of the fungal pathogen and its host will provide a better platform for understanding the plant-microbe interactions at the genomic level and serve as a valuable resource for the research community.

Keywords: Magnaporthe oryzae; Oryza sativa; fungus–plant interactions; plant responses to pathogens; transcriptome.