Glycine max cultivar:Williams 82 Raw sequence reads. Glycine max cultivar:Williams 82

Molecular signatures of perception-rendered defense may be leveraged subsequently to develop resistant/tolerant crop plants. Additionally, evidence suggests that the plant immune system is characterized by tuning primary and secondary metabolic activity via transcription factor-mediated transcriptional reprogramming. Therefore, we investigated transcription factor-target gene interactions in soybean upon infection by compatible and incompatible races of Phytophthora sojae. Through transcriptome analysis, we found that the interactions elicited vast, overlapping transcriptional responses and identified overrepresented, defense-related transcription factor families. We then generated/acquired DNA-protein interactome data for the most represented transcription factor families in the transcriptome analysis and trained deep learning-based models to predict novel transcription factor targets. Transcription factor/target gene metrics were used to construct a gene regulatory network with prioritized components. We identified hub transcription factors belonging to WRKY and ERF families, the majority of which function in response to various biotic and abiotic stressors. These findings propose novel regulators in the soybean defense response to Phytophthora sojae and provide an avenue for investigating transcription factor-target gene interactions in plants.