Project description:Bud dormancy is a crucial stage in perennial trees and allows survival over winter and optimal subsequent flowering and fruit production. Environmental conditions, and in particular temperature, have been shown to influence bud dormancy. Recent work highlighted some physiological and molecular events happening during bud dormancy in trees. However, we still lack a global understanding of transcriptional changes happening during bud dormancy. We conducted a fine tune temporal transcriptomic analysis of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) flower buds from bud organogenesis until the end of bud dormancy using next-generation sequencing. We observe that buds in organogenesis, paradormancy, endodormancy and ecodormancy are characterised by distinct transcriptional states, and associated with different pathways. We further identified that endodormancy can be separated in two phases based on its transcriptomic state: early and late endodormancy. We also found that transcriptional profiles of just 7 genes are enough to predict the main cherry tree flower buds dormancy stages. Our results indicate that transcriptional changes happening during dormancy are robust and conserved between different sweet cherry cultivars. Our work also sets the stage for the development of a fast and cost effective diagnostic tool to molecularly define the flower bud stage in cherry trees.
Project description:Using A. lyrata microarray platform the transcriptomic response of shoot tissues was characterized at two different time points- 8d and 11d after withdrawal of regular water application..
Project description:Bioenergy sorghum’s large and deep nodal root system and associated microbiome enables uptake of water and nutrients from and deposition of soil organic carbon into soil profiles, key contributors to the crop’s resilience and sustainability. The goal of this study was to increase our understanding of bioenergy sorghum nodal root bud development. Sorghum nodal root bud initiation was first observed on the stem node of the 7th phytomer below the shoot apex. Buds were initiated near the upper end of the stem node pulvinus on the side of the stem opposite the tiller bud, then additional buds were added over the next 6-8 days forming a ring of 10-15 nascent nodal root buds around the stem. Later in plant development, a second ring of nodal root buds began forming on the 17th stem node immediately above the first ring of buds. Overall, nodal root bud development can take ~40 days from initiation to onset of nodal root outgrowth. Nodal root buds were initiated in close association with vascular bundles in the rind of the pulvinus. Stem tissue forming nascent nodal root buds expressed sorghum homologs of genes associated with root initiation (WOX4), auxin transport (LAX2, PIN4), meristem activation (NGAL2), and genes involved in cell proliferation. Expression of WOX11 and WOX5, genes involved in root stem niche formation, increased early in nodal root bud development followed by genes encoding PLTs, LBDs (LBD29), LRP1, SMB, RGF1 and root cap LEAs later in development. A nodal root bud gene regulatory network module expressed during nodal root bud initiation predicted connections linking PFA5, SPL9 and WOX4 to genes involved in hormone signaling, meristem activation, and cell proliferation. A network module expressed later in development predicted connections among SOMBRERO, a gene involved in root cap formation, and GATA19, BBM, LBD29 and RITF1/RGF1 signaling. Overall, this study provides a detailed description of bioenergy sorghum nodal root bud development and transcriptome information useful for understanding the regulation of sorghum nodal root bud formation and development.
Project description:Flower-lotus with many attractive floral characteristics has been studied and discussed the most. These characteristics are used as the standards of the classification in most cases, and always attracted the attention of lotus breeders on improvement program because of associating with ornamental and economic values of lotus. However, molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of these attractive floral features still remain largely unknown. Transcriptome sequencing technique has been established as an efficient approach for gene discovery and expression pattern identification. For some plants, a lot of important genes involved in plant critical metabolisms have been successfully identified by this technique. In the study, mass sequence data obtained from the deep sequencing of a mixed flower-bud cDNA pool from three individuals of N. nucifera provide a platform to comprehensively understand the processes of flower formation and development at the molecular level, and will greatly facilitate the genetic improvement of ornamental characteristics and the directive molecular breeding for lotus in the future.
Project description:Flower-lotus with many attractive floral characteristics has been studied and discussed the most. These characteristics are used as the standards of the classification in most cases, and always attracted the attention of lotus breeders on improvement program because of associating with ornamental and economic values of lotus. However, molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of these attractive floral features still remain largely unknown. Transcriptome sequencing technique has been established as an efficient approach for gene discovery and expression pattern identification. For some plants, a lot of important genes involved in plant critical metabolisms have been successfully identified by this technique. In the study, mass sequence data obtained from the deep sequencing of a mixed flower-bud cDNA pool from three individuals of N. nucifera provide a platform to comprehensively understand the processes of flower formation and development at the molecular level, and will greatly facilitate the genetic improvement of ornamental characteristics and the directive molecular breeding for lotus in the future. A mixed cDNA pool from young flower-buds (35-40mm in length) of three accessions of N. nucifera were used for deep sequencing using 454 GS-FLX Titanium.