Actinidia chinensis Transcriptome or Gene expression
Plants the invasion and establishment of pathogens through the exsistence of structural barriers and biochemical response mechanisms. In this regard, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been found to play a role in various plant growth and developmental processes, as well as plant disease resistance. In this study, high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics were used to identify lncRNAs in kiwifruit and to predict their function based on their inferred target genes. A total of 591 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 1,819 mRNAs were identified in kiwifruit samples infected with P. expansum for 24 hours. GO enrichment analysis indicated that the highest number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) fell into the biological processes category of the three ontologies. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that the highest number of DEGs occurred in the Plant-pathogen interaction and Plant hormone signal transduction pathways. LncRNAs in kiwifruit may be involved in the response to pathogen infections through salicylic acid (SA), gibberellin (GA), and abscisic acid (ABA) pathways. In this regard, genes, such as NPR1, PP2C, GA20ox, and A-ARR, exhibited varying degrees of differential expression. Our results provide further insight into the molecular response of kiwifruit to infections by P. expansum and provide a theoretical foundation for improving disease resistance.