Project description:cDNA microarray analysis of gene expression changes during pollen germination and tube growth in Lilium longiflorum L. Keywords: other
Project description:Background: Pollen, the male partner in the reproduction of flowering plants, comprises either two or three cells at maturity. The current knowledge of the pollen transcriptome is limited to the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which has tri-cellular pollen grains at maturity. Comparative studies on pollen of other genera, particularly crop plants, are needed to understand the pollen gene networks that are subject to functional and evolutionary conservation. In this study, we used the Affymetrix Soybean GeneChip® to perform transcriptional profiling on mature bi-cellular soybean pollen. Results: Compared to the sporophyte transcriptome, the soybean pollen transcriptome revealed a restricted and unique repertoire of genes, with a significantly greater proportion of specifically expressed genes than is found in the sporophyte tissue. Comparative analysis shows that, among the 37,500 soybean unique transcripts addressed in this study, 10,299 genes (27.46%) are expressed in pollen. Of the pollen-expressed genes, about 9,489 (92.13%) are also expressed in sporophytic tissues, and 810 (7.87%) are selectively expressed in pollen. Overall, the soybean pollen transcriptome shows an enrichment of transcription factors (mostly zinc finger family proteins), cell cycle-related transcripts, signal recognition receptors, ethylene responsive factors, chromatin remodeling factors, and members of the ubiquitin proteasome proteolytic pathway. Moreover, we identify several new pollen-specific candidate genes that might play a significant role in pollen biology. Conclusion: This is the first report of a soybean pollen transcriptional profile. These data extend our current knowledge regarding regulatory pathways that govern the gene regulation and development of pollen. We also demonstrate that pollen is a rich store of regulatory proteins that are essential and sufficient for de novo gene expression. A comparison between transcription factors up-regulated in soybean and those upregulated in Arabidopsis revealed some divergence in the numbers and kinds of regulatory proteins expressed in both species.
Project description:The cDNA of 4 Lilium cultivars were sequenced in this study in order to develop SNP markers for mapping purpose. The four selected cultivars represent the four main hybrid groups in Lilium which are (Asiatic, Oriental, Longiflorum, and Trumpet). The SNP markers developed of this study will be implemented in mapping and association studies that aims to find SNP markers linked to virus resistance in Lilium. To achieve this target, SNP markers were generated from each cultivar separately, and of the four cultivars together trying to cover as much as variation in each cultivar and also to find SNP markers that can distinguish the four cultivars. Doing so, we hope to identify different genes resistance to virus in the four hybrid groups of Lilium.