Applications of transcriptomics in understanding plant disease resistance

Plant disease resistance, especially marker-assisted selection is the key element in disease management strategies. Recent advances in-molecular techniques have enabled a better understanding of the complex defense mechanisms triggered in plants in response to the attack by various pathogens and pests. Developing high-yield varieties with disease resistance is a challenging task. Several 'omics' techniques enable us to study plant-pathogen interactions. Transcriptome studies help to identify various disease resistance factors expressed by plants. Comparative transcriptome profiling can identify resistant and susceptible factors in plants and thereby assisting disease resistance breeding against specific pathogens. Several transcriptome studies have been documented in plant disease resistance profiling. These studies focused on the identification of R genes, transcription factor families, stress-responsive genes, pathogenesis-related (PR) protein families, and receptor-like kinases. All these pieces of evidences support the identification of disease-resistant candidate gene(s). Here we describe the major transcriptome profiling techniques and how they unravel the mechanism of disease resistance and identification of core resistant genes against various plant pathogens.