Meta-transcriptomics indicates biotic cross-tolerance in willow trees cultivated on petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soil.

ABSTRACT:

Background

High concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) pollution can be hazardous to human health and leave soils incapable of supporting agricultural crops. A cheap solution, which can help restore biodiversity and bring land back to productivity, is cultivation of high biomass yielding willow trees. However, the genetic mechanisms which allow these fast-growing trees to tolerate PHCs are as yet unclear.

Methods

Salix purpurea 'Fish Creek' trees were pot-grown in soil from a former petroleum refinery, either lacking or enriched with C10-C50 PHCs. De novo assembled transcriptomes were compared between tree organs and impartially annotated without a priori constraint to any organism.

Results

Over 45% of differentially expressed genes originated from foreign orga

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4603587 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature