Transcriptome analysis of Sclerotinia ginseng and comparative analysis with the genome of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Sclerotinia ginseng is a non-model necrotrophic pathogen responsible for a serious epidemic in the ginseng production area in northeast China. In this study, de novo RNA sequencing was carried out using an Illumina HiSeq™ 4000 platform in conjunction with the short-read assembly program Trinity. The S. ginseng transcriptome was compared with that of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and species-specific unigenes were annotated with KEGG and GO terms. Phylogenetic analysis of amino acid sequences for four polygalacturonase (pg) genes and a pH-response transcription factor (pac1) homologous gene identified in S. ginseng revealed a close evolutionary relationship with other species of Sclerotiniaceae.