Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of rice NLR genes responsive to the infections of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae and Magnaporthe oryzae
Abstract Background Nucleotide-binding site, leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes play a critical role in rice disease resistance. However, the transcriptional activities of rice NLR genes during pathogen invasions are still unclear.Results To uncover the veil, we identified a total of 430 regular rice NLR genes with both NBS and LRR domains, consisting of 192 CNL and 238 XNL (without a CC motif) members. We performed individual and integrative analyses based on 69 samples from rice microarray after the infections of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and Magnaporthe oryzae (Mor). 397 NLR genes were found to be expressed at low/medium level, while 10 NLR genes were observed to show high levels of expression. 400 NLR genes were discovered to be differentially expressed in at least one sample. Further, 46 NLR genes were identified to be differentially expressed in rice response to the two pathogens and 38 of them could be validated by RNA-seq data. Six cis-regulatory elements (MYC, STRE, MYB, ABRE, G-box, and AS-1) were observed to occur frequently in the promoter regions of rice NLR genes. Ten NLR genes were selected for in lab analysis, and qRT-PCR results of seven NLR genes verified the validity of the microarray and RNA-Seq data.Conclusions Our results would shed new light on revealing the roles of NLR genes in rice resistance to Xoo and Mor.