Project description:Kelp are the largest photosynthetic organisms in the ocean with tissue differentiation and complex life cycles. Other multicellular organisms with similar complexity such as plants and animals are well known to posses epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation to control development and morphogenesis. Despite plant-like body plans and the presence of different life-cycle stages, the kelp species Saccharina japonica has only a very low level of DNA methylation, yet we have found strong evidence for differential methylation of regulatory elements and protein-coding genes which seem to contribute to the formation of life-cycle stages, tissue differentiation, growth and halogen metabolism. Thus, DNA methylation seems to play an important role in kelp, which has not been reported before.
Project description:Saccharina japonica is one of the most important marine economic crops worldwide. Blue light usually plays a significant role in the lives of Saccharina that may be beneficial to the culture system. Here we applied high-throughput paired-end RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) to the transcriptome of Saccharina japonica with blue light and dark exposure respectively. Comparative analysis of gene expression was conducted to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms. RNA-seq analysis yielded 70,497 non-redundant unigenes. 25,924 unigenes of them had good comparability with known gene sequences in existing species. Based on the values of RPKM, 11,660 differentially expressed unigenes were detected in expression profiles between blue light and dark exposed samples. Our results provide clues to potential genes identification in the species and lay the foundation for future functional genomics study.
Project description:Saccharina japonica is one of the most important marine economic crops worldwide. Blue light usually plays a significant role in the lives of Saccharina that may be beneficial to the culture system. Here we applied high-throughput paired-end RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) to the transcriptome of Saccharina japonica with blue light and dark exposure respectively. Comparative analysis of gene expression was conducted to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms. RNA-seq analysis yielded 70,497 non-redundant unigenes. 25,924 unigenes of them had good comparability with known gene sequences in existing species. Based on the values of RPKM, 11,660 differentially expressed unigenes were detected in expression profiles between blue light and dark exposed samples. Our results provide clues to potential genes identification in the species and lay the foundation for future functional genomics study. mRNA expression of Saccharina japonica with 2 different treatment (sample exposed to Dark condition, and sample exposed to blue light respectively) was determined by method of RNA-Seq