Dataset Information

Genome-Scale Transcriptome Analysis of the Desert Shrub Artemisia sphaerocephala.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Artemisia sphaerocephala, a semi-shrub belonging to the Artemisia genus of the Compositae family, is an important pioneer plant that inhabits moving and semi-stable sand dunes in the deserts and steppes of northwest and north-central China. It is very resilient in extreme environments. Additionally, its seeds have excellent nutritional value, and the abundant lipids and polysaccharides in the seeds make this plant a potential valuable source of bio-energy. However, partly due to the scarcity of genetic information, the genetic mechanisms controlling the traits and environmental adaptation capacity of A. sphaerocephala are unknown. RESULTS:Here, we present the first in-depth transcriptomic analysis of A. sphaerocephala. To maximize the representation of conditional transcripts, mRNA was obtained from 17 samples, including living tissues of desert-growing A. sphaerocephala, seeds germinated in the laboratory, and calli subjected to no stress (control) and high and low temperature, high and low osmotic, and salt stresses. De novo transcriptome assembly performed using an Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform resulted in the generation of 68,373 unigenes. We analyzed the key genes involved in the unsaturated fatty acid synthesis pathway and identified 26 A. sphaerocephala fad2 genes, which is the largest fad2 gene family reported to date. Furthermore, a set of genes responsible for resistance to extreme temperatures, salt, drought and a combination of stresses was identified. CONCLUSION:The present work provides abundant genomic information for functional dissection of the important traits of A. sphaerocephala and contributes to the current understanding of molecular adaptive mechanisms of A. sphaerocephala in the desert environment. Identification of the key genes in the unsaturated fatty acid synthesis pathway could increase understanding of the biological regulatory mechanisms of fatty acid composition traits in plants and facilitate genetic manipulation of the fatty acid composition of oil crops.

SUBMITTER: Zhang L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4846011 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Genome-Scale Transcriptome Analysis of the Desert Shrub Artemisia sphaerocephala.

Zhang Lijing L Hu Xiaowei X Miao Xiumei X Chen Xiaolong X Nan Shuzhen S Fu Hua H

PloS one 20160426 4

<h4>Background</h4>Artemisia sphaerocephala, a semi-shrub belonging to the Artemisia genus of the Compositae family, is an important pioneer plant that inhabits moving and semi-stable sand dunes in the deserts and steppes of northwest and north-central China. It is very resilient in extreme environments. Additionally, its seeds have excellent nutritional value, and the abundant lipids and polysaccharides in the seeds make this plant a potential valuable source of bio-energy. However, partly due ...[more]

PMID: 27115614

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Project description:BackgroundAmmopiptanthus mongolicus (Maxim. ex Kom.) Cheng f., an evergreen broadleaf legume shrub, is distributed in Mid-Asia where the temperature can be as low as -30°C during the winter. Although A. mongolicus is an ideal model to study the plant response to cold stress, insufficient genomic resources for this species are available in public databases. To identify genes involved in cold acclimation (a phenomenon experienced by plants after low temperature stress), a high-throughput sequencing technology was applied.ResultsWe sequenced cold-treated and control (untreated) samples of A. mongolicus, and obtained 65,075,656 and 67,287,120 high quality reads, respectively. After de novo assembly and quantitative assessment, 82795 all-unigenes were finally generated with an average length of 816 bp. We then obtained functional annotations by aligning all-unigenes with public protein databases including NR, SwissProt, KEGG and COG. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were investigated using the RPKM method. Overall, 9309 up-regulated genes and 23419 down-regulated genes were identified. To increase our understanding of these DEGs, we performed GO enrichment and metabolic pathway enrichment analyses. Based on these results, a series of candidate genes involved in cold responsive pathways were selected and discussed. Moreover, we analyzed transcription factors, and found 720 of them are differentially expressed. Finally, 20 of the candidate genes that were up-regulated and known to be associated with cold stress were examined using qRT-PCR.ConclusionsIn this study, we identified a large set of cDNA unigenes from A. mongolicus. This is the first transcriptome sequencing of this non-model species under cold-acclimation using Illumina/Solexa, a next-generation sequencing technology. We sequenced cold-treated and control (untreated) samples of A. mongolicus and obtained large numbers of unigenes annotated to public databases. Studies of differentially expressed genes involved in cold-related metabolic pathways and transcription factors facilitate the discovery of cold-resistance genes.

Project description:BackgroundThe molecular mechanisms involved in plant tolerance to either drought or cold have been extensively studied in many plant species. However, few studies have focused on their comparisons especially using non-model plants with strong tolerance to both stresses. Ammopiptanthus mongolicus (Maxim. ex Kom.) Cheng f. is the only evergreen broadleaf shrub grown in the central Asian desert and it has very strong cold and drought tolerance. To provide further insights into plant tolerance, the transcriptome profiles of drought- and cold-treated A. mongolicus seedlings were analyzed using Illumina technology and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were compared.ResultsA comprehensive transcriptome of A. mongolicus was sequenced using pooled mRNA extracted from drought-, cold-stressed and unstressed seedlings as well as leaves from naturally grown shrub. These sequences were assembled into 86058 unigenes, of which 51014 unigenes had an annotated function and 2440 encoded transcription factors (TFs). Transcriptome profiles were analyzed in A. mongolicus seedlings after drought and cold treatments at three time points (2, 8 and 24 h). Between 3917 and 6102 unigenes were identified as DEGs at a single time point in both stresses. Among these DEGs 2028 and 2026 DEGs were common across the three time points of drought and cold treatments respectively, and 971 DEGs were co-regulated by both stresses. Functional enrichment analyses identified many common or specific biological processes and gene sets in response to drought and cold stresses. The most pronounced findings are that flavonoid biosynthesis genes were enriched in the DEGs co-up-regulated by both stresses; while membrane protein genes and genes related to chloroplast were abundant in the DEGs specifically up-regulated by drought or cold, respectively. Furthermore, the DREB, ERF, NAC and WRKY TFs were predominantly co-up-regulated by both stresses.ConclusionsThe present study provides the most comprehensive transcriptome resource and the first dynamic transcriptome profiles of A. mongolicus under drought and cold stresses. This information will deepen our understanding of plant tolerance to drought and cold. The up-regulated DEGs will be valuable for further investigations of key genes and molecular mechanisms involved in the adaptation of A. mongolicus to harsh environments.

Dataset Information

Genome-Scale Transcriptome Analysis of the Desert Shrub Artemisia sphaerocephala.

Publications

Genome-Scale Transcriptome Analysis of the Desert Shrub Artemisia sphaerocephala.

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