Transcriptomics of Host–Pathogen Interaction

Plants encounter several pathogens in their lifetime, and both host and pathogen show altered gene expression in response to their interaction. These reactions typically include pathogen authentication, transmission of signals, and the actual protective response. A large number of genes produce protection-associated proteins that further control intricate signalling networks. The plant responses to infections are categorized as either incompatible interactions (host–resistant) or compatible interactions (host–susceptible) based on the pace and magnitude of the apparent response to pathogen invasion and the plant’s ability to restrict pathogen development (Jones et al. 2011; Singh and Singh 2018). The knowledge of such interconnections is essential to successfully eliminate illness. The evaluation of interactions between plants and pathogens needs to be performed at a much greater pace if effective disease control techniques are to be established. Conventional biochemical and genetic methods were mostly ineffective to investigate such intricate interactions between host and pathogen. The investigations on the study based on community genomes, community transcriptomes, community metabolites, and community proteins have benefited greatly in understanding plant–pathogen interactions. An in-depth examination of alterations at the transcriptional level could provide a dynamic communication network of plant–pathogen interactions. Transcriptomics encompasses a number of techniques for analysing changes at the transcriptional level under varying conditions. These techniques include northern blotting, nylon membrane arrays, quantitative PCR (qPCR), differential displayed-reverse transcriptase PCR, hybridization-based microarray, etc. In addition, the development of next-generation sequencing techniques has enabled the investigation of genome-wide gene expression via RNA-Seq.