Project description:Seedlessness is an important agronomic trait for citrus, and male sterility (MS) is one main cause of seedless citrus fruit. However, the molecular mechanism of citrus seedlessness remained not well explored. An integrative strategy combining SSH (suppression subtractive hybridization) library with cDNA microarray was employed to study the underlying mechanism of seedlessness of a Ponkan mandarin seedless mutant (Citrus reticulate Blanco). Screening with custom microarray, a total of 279 differentially expressed clones were identified, and 133 unigenes (43 contigs and 90 singletons) were obtained after sequencing. Gene Ontology (GO) distribution showed that the majority of differential genes involved in metabolic process, responded to stimulus and functioned as DNA/RNA binding, catalytic activity and oxidoreductase activity. Expression dynamics of some candidate clones revealed a gene encoding male sterility protein 2 was highly up-regulated, while several transcription factors (TFs) such as AP2/EREBP, MYB, WRKY, NAC and C2C2-GATA zinc-finger domain TFs were specifically down-regulated in the seedless mutant compared with the wild type. Our research highlighted some candidate pathways that participated in the citrus male gametophyte development and could be beneficial for seedless citrus breeding in the future. Flower buds from the seedless citrus mutant and its wild type were collected at four developmental stages: quaring stage (SF, about 20 DBF), medium bud stage (MF, about 10 DBF), flowers at full bloom stage (BF) and young ovaries of 2-3 days after flowering (OV). Total RNA extracted from the mutant and the wild type was hybridized to the array. The hybridization was performed in duplicate by dye swap.
Project description:Seedlessness is an important agronomic trait for citrus, and male sterility (MS) is one main cause of seedless citrus fruit. However, the molecular mechanism of citrus seedlessness remained not well explored. An integrative strategy combining SSH (suppression subtractive hybridization) library with cDNA microarray was employed to study the underlying mechanism of seedlessness of a Ponkan mandarin seedless mutant (Citrus reticulate Blanco). Screening with custom microarray, a total of 279 differentially expressed clones were identified, and 133 unigenes (43 contigs and 90 singletons) were obtained after sequencing. Gene Ontology (GO) distribution showed that the majority of differential genes involved in metabolic process, responded to stimulus and functioned as DNA/RNA binding, catalytic activity and oxidoreductase activity. Expression dynamics of some candidate clones revealed a gene encoding male sterility protein 2 was highly up-regulated, while several transcription factors (TFs) such as AP2/EREBP, MYB, WRKY, NAC and C2C2-GATA zinc-finger domain TFs were specifically down-regulated in the seedless mutant compared with the wild type. Our research highlighted some candidate pathways that participated in the citrus male gametophyte development and could be beneficial for seedless citrus breeding in the future.
Project description:Seed developmental arrest is one of the early phenotypes of seed abortion. However, the molecular mechanism underlying seed developmental arrest of citrus is still unclear. In this study, laser capture microdissection (LCM) was used to accurately divide the seeds of seedless Ponkan ‘Huagan No.4’ (Citrus reticulata) (HG) and seeded Ponkan ‘Egan No.1’ (Citrus reticulata) (EG) into nucellus and integument/seed coat tissues. The captured tissues were used for subsequent RNA-seq. Moreover, single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing was used to generate full-length transcripts of EG, which were used as reference transcripts for RNA-seq. These data can be utilized to analyse the causes of citrus seedlessness formation and the molecular regulatory network in the process of seed abortion.
Project description:Comparative transcript profiling of gene expression between seedless Ponkan mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) and its seedy wild type during floral organ development
Project description:The fruits color is one of the most important appearance qualities of citrus fruits. To illuminate the potential regulation of the color formation process of citrus fruits, the present study compared the different genes expression pattern between a spontaneous stay-green mutant and its wild type.
Project description:The fruits color is one of the most important appearance qualities of citrus fruits. To illuminate the potential regulation of the color formation process of citrus fruits, the present study compared the different genes expression pattern between a spontaneous stay-green mutant and its wild type.