RNA-Seq analysis of sorghum defense transcriptomes in response to Fusarium stalk rot infection

Sorghum inbred lines SC599 and BTx3042 were used for transcriptome analysis to study the Fusarium stalk rot resistance mechanism and to identify genes and pathways associated with it. Fusarium thapsinum suspension culture was injected into the sorghum stalk ~10cm above ground. 24 samples were collected from stalk tissue above the inoculation area from three biological replicates in two sampling times at 24- and 48-hours post-inoculation (hpi). Overall, the experiment consisted of 24 samples comprising two lines, two time points (24 and 48 hpi), and two treatments (F. thapsinum inoculated and control) across three biological replicates. RNA was extracted from the tissues with the RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Germantown, MD, USA). cDNA libraries were constructed following the Illumina TruSeq stranded mRNA protocol (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). The samples were sequenced on the NextSeq500 platform (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA)