Project description:Background：Taxol is an efficient anticancer drug; however, the accumulation of taxoids can vary hugely among Taxus species. The mechanism underlying differential accumulation of taxoids are largely unknown. Thus, the comparative analysis of the transcriptomes in three Taxus species, including T. media, T. mairei and T. cuspidata, was performed. Results:KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the diterpenoid biosynthesis and cytochrome P450 pathways were significantly enriched in the differential expressed genes. Dynamic expressions of the taxol biosynthesis related genes might be a potential explanation for the interspecific differential accumulation of taxol and its derivatives. Besides, the sequences of several key enzymes were re-assembled based on independent transcriptomes from different Taxus species. Our data showed that sequence diversity may be another factor that determines the variations in taxoids. Furthermore, five jasmonic acid (JA) metabolism-related GO terms were analyzed. The differential expression of these JA-related transcription factors suggested distinct responses to exogenous MeJA applications in the three Taxus species. Conclusions:Our results revealed the comprehensive variations in the expression pattern and sequence similarity of the key genes involved in the metabolism of taxoids among different Taxus species. The data give us an opportunity to reveal the mechanism underlying the variations in the taxoid contents and to select the highest-yielding Taxus species.
Project description:In this study transcriptomic data of three life history stages of Orciraptor agilis was generated: 1) Gliding cells in absence of food ('gliding'), 2) Cells attached to the cell wall of its algal prey during perforation ('fattacking'), 3) Cells after acquisition of the algal plastid material ('digesting'). Furthermore, RNA-seq of the algal prey Mougeotia sp. was also performed. A de novo transcriptome assembly of the algal reads was performed in order to identify and substract algal reads of the Orciraptor samples by mapping the Orciraptor reads to the algal transcriptome. After this filtering step the remaining Orciraptor reads from all libraries were pooled for a de novo transcriptome assembly of Orciraptor agilis. This transcriptome was the basis for a comparative transcriptomic study in which transcript expression was compared between the three life history stages.
