Wheat hybrid necrosis is an interesting genetic phenomenon that is found frequently and results in gradual death or loss of productivity of wheat. However, the molecular basis and mechanisms of this genetic phenomenon are still not well understood. In this study, the transcriptomes of wheat hybrid necrosis F1 and its parents (Neimai 8 and II469) were investigated using digital gene expression (DGE). A total of 1300 differentially expressed genes were identified, indicating that the response to hybrid necrosis in wheat is complicated. The assignments of the annotated genes based on Gene Ontology (GO) revealed that most of the up-regulated genes belong to "universal stress related", "DNA/RNA binding", "protein degradation" functional groups, while the down-regulated genes belong to "carbohydrate metabolism" and "translation regulation" functional groups. These findings suggest that these pathways were affected by hybrid necrosis. Our results provide preliminarily new insight into the underlying molecular mechanisms of hybrid necrosis and will help to identify important candidate genes involved in wheat hybrid necrosis.