Project description:Investigation of annual transcriptome dynamics of Japanese cedar cuttings planted in three regions (Yamagata, Ibaraki and Kumamoto, Japan).
Project description:A comparision of soil microbial functional genes of three types of subtropical broad-leaved forests Microbial functional structure was significantly different among SBFs (P < 0.05). Compared to the DBF and the EBF, the MBF had higher alpha-diversity of functional genes but lower beta-diversity, and showed more complex functional gene networks.
Project description:Brown rot fungi have great potential in biorefinery wood conversion systems, because they are the primary wood decomposers in coniferous forests and have an efficient lignocellulose degrading system. Their initial wood degradation mechanism is thought to consist of an oxidative radical-based system that acts sequentially with an enzymatic saccharification system, but the complete molecular mechanism of this system has not yet been elucidated. Some studies have shown that wood degradation mechanisms of brown rot fungi have diversity in their substrate selectivity. Gloeophyllum trabeum, one of the most studied brown rot species, has broad substrate selectivity and even can degrade some grasses. However, the basis for this broad substrate specificity is poorly understood. In this study, we performed RNA-seq analyses on G. trabeum grown on media containing glucose, cellulose, or Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) as the sole carbon source. Beyond the gene expression on glucose, 1129 genes were upregulated on cellulose and 1516 genes were upregulated on cedar. Carbohydrate Active enZyme (CAZyme) genes upregulated on cellulose and cedar media by G. trabeum included GH12, GH131, CE1, AA3_1, AA3_2, AA3_4 and AA9, which is a newly reported expression pattern for brown rot fungi. The upregulation of both terpene synthase and cytochrome P450 genes on cedar media suggests the potential importance of these genes in the production of secondary metabolites associated with the chelator-mediated Fenton reaction. These results provide new insights into the inherent wood degradation mechanism of G. trabeum and the diversity of brown rot mechanisms.
Project description:A custom cDNA microarray analysis was designed based on a proprietary cDNA library and EST data to investigate seasonal gene expression in Japanese cedar cambial region.
Project description:Investigation of transcriptome dynamics of Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) in winter (Dec. 22-23, 2011) and summer (July 30-31, 2012). We investigated seasonal and diurnal transcriptome dynamics of Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) by analyzing shoot samples collected at four-hour interval for two days in winter and summer, respectively. We first collected sequence data of expressed genes from shoots to designed microarray probes. Microarray analysis revealed the significant difference of transcripts between summer and winter, and the diurnal transcriptome dynamic in summer.Statistical analysis indicated that about 7.7 % of unique genes showed diurnal rhythms with more than two-fold of peak-to-trough amplitude in summer.
Project description:Despite the global importance of forests, it is virtually unknown how their soil microbial communities adapt at the phylogenetic and functional level to long term metal pollution. Studying twelve sites located along two distinct gradients of metal pollution in Southern Poland revealed that both community composition (via MiSeq Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes) and functional gene potential (using GeoChip 4.2) were highly similar across the gradients despite drastically diverging metal contamination levels. Metal pollution level significantly impacted microbial community structure (p = 0.037), but not bacterial taxon richness. Metal pollution altered the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes and Proteobacteria. Also, a group of metal resistance genes showed significant correlations with metal concentrations in soil, although no clear impact of metal pollution levels on overall functional diversity and structure of microbial communities was observed. While screens of phylogenetic marker genes, such as 16S rRNA, provided only limited insight into resilience mechanisms, analysis of specific functional genes, e.g. involved in metal resistance, appeared to be a more promising strategy. This study showed that the effect of metal pollution on soil microbial communities was not straightforward, but could be filtered out from natural variation and habitat factors by multivariate statistical analysis and spatial sampling involving separate pollution gradients.
Project description:Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) is an allogamous coniferous species that relies on wind-mediated pollen and seed dispersal, and it is one of the most important forestry tree species in Japan. For accelerating breeding, we collected massive SNPs based on ESTs from several organs using NGS, and thus carried out QTL, GWAS and GS based on high-density linkage maps.
Project description:Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) is an allogamous coniferous species that relies on wind-mediated pollen and seed dispersal, and it is one of the most important forestry tree species in Japan. For accelerating breeding, we collected massive SNPs based on ESTs from several organs using NGS, and thus carried out QTL, GWAS and GS based on high-density linkage maps.
Project description:Environmental pollution is a worldwide problem, and metals are the largest group of contaminants in soil. Microarray toxicogenomic studies with ecologically relevant organisms such as springtails, supplement traditional ecotoxicological research, but are presently rather descriptive. Classifier analysis, a more analytical application of the microarray technique, is able to predict biological classes of unknown samples. We used the uncorrelated shrunken centroid (USC) method to classify gene expression profiles of the springtail Folsomia candida exposed to soil spiked with six different metals (barium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, lead, and zinc). We identified a gene set (classifier) of 188 genes that can discriminate between six different metals present in soil, which allowed us to predict the correct classes for samples of an independent test set with an accuracy of 83% (error rate = 0.17). This study shows further that in order to apply classifier analysis to actual contaminated field soil samples, more insight and information is needed on the transcriptional responses of soil organisms to different soil types (properties) and mixtures of contaminants.