Project description:Development of a Picea abies SNPs catalog. A bioinformatics pipeline was developed and allowed to detect 61,771 in silico SNPs distributed among 13,543 genes. A bioinformatics pipeline was developed and allowed to detect 61,771 in silico SNPs distributed among 13,543 genes The true positive rate for this set of SNPs was estimated using a sample of 5571 predicted SNPs by genotyping 1130 P. abies trees using an Illumina Infinium iSelect SNP array. The true positive rate for the set of in silico SNPs was 84.2% and was comparable to the genotyping success rate of 85.4% for a set of 89 P. abies control SNPs successfully genotyped on previous Illumina GoldenGate genotyping arrays. Nucleotide diversity was analyzed across functional categories
Project description:Small RNAs (21-24 nt) are pivotal regulators of gene expression that guide both transcriptional and post-transcriptional silencing mechanisms in diverse eukaryotes, including most if not all plants. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are the two major types, both of which have a demonstrated and important role in plant development, stress responses and pathogen resistance. In this work, we used a deep sequencing approach (Sequencing-By-Synthesis, or SBS) to develop sequence resources of small RNAs from Picea abies tissues (including needles, immature cones and lateral bud meristem). The high depth of the resulting datasets enabled us to examine in detail critical small RNA features as size distribution, tissue-specific regulation and sequence conservation between different organs in this species. We also developed database resources and a dedicated website (http://smallrna.udel.edu/) with computational tools for allowing other users to identify new miRNAs or siRNAs involved in specific regulatory pathways, verify the degree of conservation of these sequences in other plant species and map small RNAs on genes or larger regions of the maize genome under study.