In planta developmental stages of Sugarcane x Sporisorium scitamineum interaction

Sporisorium scitamineum (Syd.) is the causative agent of sugarcane smut, which is one of the most prevalent and devastating diseases in sugarcane producing countries worldwide. Hence, this project is envisaged to decipher the transcriptome of S. scitamineum isolates during its interaction with sugarcane employing Next-generation sequencing technology. A smut susceptible sugarcane cultivar Co 97009 inoculated with a high virulent S. scitamineum isolate, Ss97009 and a low virulent isolate, SsV89101 were selected for transcriptome sequencing, and the appropriate time intervals identified for sampling include 2 dpi (initial establishment of infection), 5 dpi (inter-and intracellular colonization) and 60 dpi (sporogenesis and teliospore formation in the meristem). Total RNA extracted from the samples proceeded with the construction of RNA-seq libraries, which were then sequenced on Illumina HiSeq 4000 to obtain 2x150 bp paired-end reads (5-10 GB quality reads/sample).