Project description:St (common potato) is a freezing sensitive species unable to cold acclimate. The close wild relative Sc is freezing tolerant and able to cold acclimate. Here we compare the cold transcriptome of these two species with different levels of freezing tolerance. We also identify the putative CBF regulons by comparing the transcriptomes of wild type plants with that of 35S::AtCBF3 transgenic lines in both species.
Project description:St (common potato) is a freezing sensitive species unable to cold acclimate. The close wild relative Sc is freezing tolerant and able to cold acclimate. Here we compare the cold transcriptome of these two species with different levels of freezing tolerance. We also identify the putative CBF regulons by comparing the transcriptomes of wild type plants with that of 35S::AtCBF3 transgenic lines in both species. Plants were grown in 16:8 photoperiod. Eight hours after dawn, plants were either transfered to cold or kept in the warn. Wild type S. tuberosum and S. commersonii were grown at 2oC for 2h, 24h and 7 days. Wild type plants grown under warm temperatures for 2h was used as control for 2h cold samples; wild type warm grown plants for 24h were used as controls for 24h and 7 days cold samples. Under warm conditions, S. commersonii 35S::AtCBF3 lines were compared to S. commersonii wild type plants (same thing was done for S. tuberosum).
Project description:Purpose: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ubiquitous components of endogenous plant transcriptome. miRNAs are small, single-stranded and ~21 nt long RNAs which regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and are known to play essential roles in various aspects of plant development and growth. Previously, a number of miRNAs have been identified in potato through in silico analysis and deep sequencing approach. However, identification of miRNAs through deep sequencing approach was limited to a few tissue types and developmental stages. This study reports the identification and characterization of potato miRNAs in three different vegetative tissues and four stages of tuber development by high throughput sequencing. Results: Small RNA libraries were constructed from leaf, stem, root and four early developmental stages of tuberization and subjected to deep sequencing, followed by bioinformatics analysis. A total of 89 conserved miRNAs (belonging to 33 families), 147 potato-specific miRNAs (with star sequence) and 112 candidate potato-specific miRNAs (without star sequence) were identified. The digital expression profiling based on TPM (Transcripts Per Million) and qRT-PCR analysis of conserved and potato-specific miRNAs revealed that some of the miRNAs showed tissue specific expression (leaf, stem and root) while a few demonstrated tuberization stage-specific expressions. Targets were predicted for identified conserved and potato-specific miRNAs, and predicted targets of four conserved miRNAs, miR160, miR164, miR172 and miR171, which are ARF16 (Auxin Response Factor 16), NAM (NO APICAL MERISTEM), RAP1 (Relative to APETALA2 1) and HAIRY MERISTEM (HAM) respectively, were experimentally validated using 5′RLM-RACE (RNA ligase mediated rapid amplification of cDNA ends). Gene ontology (GO) analysis for potato-specific miRNAs was also performed to predict their potential biological functions. Conclusions: We report a comprehensive study of potato miRNAs at genome-wide level by high-throughput sequencing and demonstrate that these miRNAs have tissue and/or developmental stage specific expression profile. Also, predicted targets of conserved miRNAs were experimentally confirmed for the first time in potato. Our findings indicate the existence of extensive and complex small RNA population in this crop and suggest their important role in pathways involved in diverse biological processes, including tuber developmental process.
Project description:The molecular response to salt exposure was studied in the leaves of an S. tuberosum clone using cDNA microarray. Differentially expressed genes were classified according to their known or predicted function and their expression ratio as compared to the control. The major changes upon a 150 mM NaCl exposure in potato leaves occurred in the photosystem apparatus and Calvin cycle: many transcripts coding for proteins belonging to photosystems I and II and chlorophyll synthesis were repressed, whereas cell rescue and transcription factor-related genes were mostly up-regulated. A strong down-regulation of several functional categories including primary metabolism, detoxication apparatus and signal transduction was also observed.