Transcriptome Profiling Data of Tea Leaves During Infection by the Dark Brown Tea Leaf Spot Pathogen Epicoccum mackenziei

Abstract

Dark brown leaf spot on tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) caused by Epicoccum mackenziei Jayasiri, Camporesi & K. D. Hyde has caused the loss in the yield and quality of tea leaves in Guizhou Province, southwest China. No research has been published on the gene expression profiles of tea leaves during the infection by E. mackenziei. In this study, we report the high-quality transcriptome sequencing of tea genes during infection, using high-throughput next-generation sequencing on the Illumina Novaseq™ 6000 platform. The infection resulted in significantly up- or down-regulated expression of the 960 or 397 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) from tea leaves, respectively. The DEmRNAs were annotated using the gene ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases. The expression of DEmRNA peroxidase 21 (TEA000222.1) was upregulated in response to infection by the pathogen and was enriched in the term of defense response to fungi at the biological process aspect. Expression of 26 or 13 of the tea DEmRNAs enriched in the pathways of plant–pathogen interaction were up- or downregulated, respectively, such as the genes WRKY transcription factor 1 (TEA028099.1), probable disease resistance protein At4g27220 (TEA018574.1), and serine/threonine-protein kinase CDL1 (TEA006388.1) in which were downregulated. This comprehensive gene expression profiling study of tea leaves infected by this fungal pathogen will provide a valuable resource for future research on the identification of the host genes associated with the response to pathogen challenge, and ultimately with disease resistance in the host.