Genome survey of resistance gene analogs in sugarcane: genomic features and differential expression of the innate immune system from a smut-resistant genotype

Background Resistance genes composing the two-layer immune system of plants are thought as important markers for breeding pathogen-resistant crops. Many have been the attempts to establish relationships between the genomic content of Resistance Gene Analogs (RGAs) of modern sugarcane cultivars to its degrees of resistance to diseases such as smut. However, due to the highly polyploid and heterozygous nature of sugarcane genome, large scale RGA predictions is challenging.