Project description:Hypericum perforatum L. (2n=4x=32) is an attractive model system for the study of aposporous apomixis. The earliest phenotypic features of aposporous apomixis in this species are the mitotic formation of unreduced embryo sacs from a somatic cell of the ovule nucellus and the avoidance of meiosis. In this research we addressed gene expression variation in sexual and apomictic plants, by focusing on the ovule nucellus, which is the cellular domain primarily involved into the differentiation of meiocyte precursors and aposporous embryo sacs. Gene expression analysis performed by RNAseq identified 396 differentially expressed genes and 1834 transcripts displaying phenotype-specific expression. Overall, our data suggest that phenotypic expression of aposporous apomixis is concomitant with the modulation of key genes involved in cell patterning, RNA splicing and RNA-directed DNA methylation.
