Digital Gene Expression Analysis to Screen Disease Resistance-Relevant Genes from Leaves of Herbaceous Peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) Infected by Botrytis cinerea

Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is a well-known traditional flower in China and is widely used for landscaping and garden greening due to its high ornamental value. However, disease spots usually appear after the flowering of the plant and may result in the withering of the plant in severe cases. This study examined the disease incidence in an herbaceous peony field in the Yangzhou region, Jiangsu Province. Based on morphological characteristics and molecular data, the disease in this area was identified as a gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea. Based on previously obtained transcriptome data, eight libraries generated from two herbaceous peony cultivars ‘Zifengyu’ and ‘Dafugui’ with different susceptibilities to the disease were then analyzed using digital gene expression profiling (DGE). Thousands of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened by comparing the eight samples, and these genes were annotated using the Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) database. The pathways related to plant-pathogen interaction, secondary metabolism synthesis and antioxidant system were concentrated, and 51, 76, and 13 disease resistance-relevant candidate genes were identified, respectively. The expression patterns of these candidate genes differed between the two cultivars: their expression of the disease-resistant cultivar ‘Zifengyu’ sharply increased during the early stages of infection, while it was relatively subdued in the disease-sensitive cultivar ‘Dafugui’. A selection of ten candidate genes was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to validate the DGE data. These results revealed the transcriptional changes that took place during the interaction of herbaceous peony with B. cinerea, providing insight into the molecular mechanisms of host resistance to gray mold.