Project description:Mycorrhizal fungi colonize orchid seed and induce the germination. This so-called symbiotic germination is a critical developmental process in the lifecycle of all orchids. However, the molecular changes taking place during the orchid seed symbiotic germination still remains largely unknown. To better understand the molecular mechanism of orchid seed germination, we performed comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analysis on Chinese traditional medicinal orchid plants, Dendrobium officinale to explore protein expression change at the different developmental stages between asymbiotic and symbiotic germination and identify the key proteins regulated symbiotic germination of orchid seeds. iTRAQ analysis from 8 samples identified 2256 plant proteins, of which, 308 proteins were differentially expressed across three developmental stages within asymbiotic or symbiotic accession and 229 proteins are differentially expressed in the symbiotic germination compared to asymbiotic germination. 32 proteins are co-upregulated in both proteomic and transcriptomic level for symbiotic germination compared to asymbiotic germination. Our results revealed that symbiotic germination of D. officinale seeds probably shares the common signal pathway with asymbiotic germination during the early germination stage.
Project description:Orchid Dendrobium Sonia (Sonia) has wide demand in floral market throughout the world due to its vibrant coloured flowers, flowering recurrence and dense inflorescence. Effects of different monochromatic light qualities (red, far-red, blue, white) on different developmental and growth responses such as seed gemination, shoot and root growth, chlorophyll and carotenoid accumulation were studied in Sonia. Asymbiotic seed germination was the highest under blue or white light (80%, p<0.001) and least under far-red (55%, p<0.001) suggesting that it could either be controlled by an exceptional novel function of Cryptochrome 1 or the blue wavelengths perceived by PHYA or PHYB in Sonia. All analyses were done in 6-months-old plants till 1 year of age. Shoot length increased significantly in white or red light (3.7-fold, 3.5-fold respectively) while was least under far-red (decreased by 1.6-fold) indicating the major regulatory role of PHYB for shoot growth. Root growth in red in Sonia was more similar to hypocotyl adventitious root (HAR) formation genetically considering PHYB transcript expression. We suggest that the root growth (HAR) under red in Sonia is partly attributed to PHYB, negatively regulated with HY5 transcription factor and positively associated with auxin biosynthesis and accumulation gene BABY BOOM (BBM2) and efflux carriers such as LIKE AUXIN RESISTANT 2 and 3 (LAX2, LAX3). Highest chlorophyll content under far-red and blue might be a hyper-response of SAR under FR light in Sonia. Taxonomic tree analysis finds Sonia closer to Phalenopsis and Dendrobium catenatum Lindl. The three phytochromes and one cryptochrome sequences which were similar to PHYA, B, C and CRY1 respectively. CRY1 was retrieved with one more isoform CRY1_X2, with all these sequences more similar to those of Oryza.sativa. Further study can clarify the indicating reason of a probable gene loss which is evident from the absence of any sequence similar to CRY2 in root RNA isolates of Dendrobium Sonia.
