Transcriptome sequencing of azole stressed Bipolaris sorokiniana

Bipolaris sorokiniana causes foliar spot blotch and seedling blight of wheat and barley. Propiconazole is a widely used azole fungicide to manage the fungus in the field. However, fungicide resistant pathogen strains might evolve through altered expression of genes in response to the fungicide. As resistance to the fungicide could be attributed to multiple molecular components in the fungus, we performed global transcriptomics analysis of the pathogen after exposure to the fungicide. This resulted in over-expression of target genes in the sterol biosynthesis pathway, and also revealed several metabolic pathways, transporters and stress regulators in the pathogen, which can serve as targets for developing new fungicides.