Project description:Fragaria vesca, a diploid woodland strawberry with a small and sequenced genome, is an excellent model for studying fruit development. The strawberry fruit is unique in that the edible flesh is actually enlarged receptacle tissue. The true fruit are the numerous dry achenes dotting the receptacleM-^Rs surface. Auxin produced from the achene is essential for the receptacle fruit set, a paradigm for studying crosstalk between hormone signaling and development. To investigate the molecular mechanism underlying strawberry fruit set, next-generation sequencing was employed to profile early-stage fruit development with five fruit tissue types and five developmental stages from floral anthesis to enlarged fruits. This two-dimensional data set provides a systems-level view of molecular events with precise spatial and temporal resolution.
Project description:Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a family of small endogenous, non-coding RNAs that play critical regulatory roles in plant growth, development, and environmental stress responses. Although Hami melon is an attractive model for valuable biological traits analysis, the role of miRNA action in the fruit development and ripening remains largely unknown. Here, we performed small RNA sequencing to investigate the Hami melon miRNA profiles at four fruit developmental stages Results: Small RNA sequencing yielded raw reads in eight libraries. miRNAs expression profiles were variable at different fruit developmental stages. The expression levels of five known miRNAs were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. Among the identified miRNAs, several miRNAs showed developmentally regulated and differentially expressed pattern during fruit development. Conclusions: Our results present a first comprehensive set of identification and characterization of Hami melon fruit miRNAs and their potential targets, which provide valuable basis for further research on the critical role of miRNAs in melon fruit development.
Project description:Fruit ripening in Citrus is not well understood at the molecular level. Knowledge of the regulatory mechanism of citrus fruit ripening at the post-transcriptional level in particular is lacking. Here, we comparatively analyzed the miRNAs and their targeted genes in a spontaneous late-ripening mutant, ?Fengwan? sweet orange (MT) (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck), and its wild-type counterpart ('Fengjie 72-1', WT). Using high-throughput sequencing of small RNAs and RNA degradome tags, we identified 107 known and 21 novel miRNAs, as well as 225 target genes. A total of 24 miRNAs (16 known miRNAs and 8 novel miRNAs) were shown to be differentially expressed between MT and WT. The expression pattern of several key miRNAs and their target genes during citrus fruit development and ripening stages was examined. Csi-miR156k, csi-miR159 and csi-miR166d suppressed specific transcription factors (GAMYBs, SPLs and ATHBs) that are supposed to be important regulators involved in citrus fruit development and ripening. In the present study, miRNA-mediated silencing of target genes was found under complicated and sensitive regulation in citrus fruit. The identification of miRNAs and their target genes provide new clues for future investigation of mechanisms that regulate citrus fruit ripening.
Project description:Drosophila sechellia is an island endemic host specialist that has evolved to consume the toxic fruit of Morinda citrifolia, also known as noni fruit. Recent studies by our group and others have examined genome-wide gene expression responses of fruit flies to individual highly abundant compounds found in noni responsible for the fruit’s unique chemistry and toxicity. In order to relate these reductionist experiments to the gene expression responses to feeding on noni fruit itself, we fed rotten noni fruit to adult female D. sechellia and performed RNA-sequencing. Combining the reductionist and more wholistic approaches, we have identified candidate genes that may contribute to each individual compound and those that play a more general role in response to the fruit as a whole. Using the compound specific and general responses, we used transcription factor prediction analyses to identify the regulatory networks and specific regulators involved in the responses to each compound and the fruit itself. The identified genes and regulators represent the possible genetic mechanisms and biochemical pathways that contribute to toxin resistance and noni specialization in D. sechellia.
Project description:Early stages of fruit growth from initial set through exponential growth are critical determinants of size and yield, however, there has been little detailed analysis of this phase of development. In this study we combined morphological analysis with 454 pyrosequencing to study gene expression changes occurring in young cucumber fruit at five ages from anthesis through the end of exponential growth. The resulting 1.13 million ESTs were assembled into 27,859 contigs with a mean length of 834 base pairs and a mean of 67 reads per contig. Principal component analysis separated the fruit ages into three groups corresponding with cell division/pre-exponential growth (0 and 4 days post pollination (dpp)), peak exponential expansion (8dpp), and late/post-exponential expansion stages of growth (12 and 16 dpp). Transcripts predominantly expressed at 0 and 4 dpp included homologs of histones, cyclins, and plastid and photosynthesis related genes. The group of genes with peak expression at 8dpp included cytoskeleton, cell wall, and lipid metabolism related genes and phloem specific proteins. This group also was dominated by genes with unknown function or without Arabidopsis homologs, suggesting unique factors contributing to the rapid growth phase in cucurbits. A second shift in gene expression was observed at 12-16dpp, which was characterized by abiotic and biotic stress related genes and significant enrichment for stress related- and developmental- transcription factor gene homologs. Collectively, the gene expression information coupled with morphological analyses tells a progressive story of cell division, development of photosynthetic capacity, cell expansion and fruit growth, phloem activity, protection of the fruit surface, and finally transition away from fruit growth toward defense and maturation. mRNA profiling of early fruit development using 454 sequencing.
Project description:We performed whole genome re-sequencing to reveal the comprehensive genetic variation of the fruit development between kumquat (Fortunella japonica) and Clementine mandarin. Total 5,865,235 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 414,447 insertion/deletion (InDels) were identified in the two citrus species. Meanwhile, a total of 640,801 SNPs and 20,733 InDels were identified based on integrative analysis of genome and transcriptome of fruit. The variation feature, genomic distribution, functional effect and other characteristics of these genetic variation were explored. Total 1,090 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found during fruit development process of kumquat and Clementine mandarin by RNA-sequencing. Gene Ontology revealed that these genes were involved in various molecular functional and biological processes. Meanwhile, the genetic variation of 939 DEGs and 74 multiple fruit development pathway genes from previous reported were also identified. In addition, a global survey of genes splicing events identified 24,237 specific alternative splicing (AS) events in the two citrus species and showed that intron retention is the most prevalent pattern of alternative splicing.
Project description:Purpose: transcriptome sequencing of Conopomorpha sinensis Methods: high-through Illumina HiSeqTM 2000 Results:66017 transcripts,35383 unigenes Conclusions:This study provided valuable transcriptome data for the litchi fruit borer, which was the first fundamental genomic basis for exploiting gene resources from the litchi fruit borer