Project description:Sesame seeds is an important traditional crop with high oil content and other abundant nutrients which are very beneficial for diet and health of human being. However, the molecular mechanism for metabolite accumulation, especially for oil and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, is still not very clear in sesame. In this study, the transcriptome profiles of black and white sesame seeds were compared by RNA-sequencing. Transcriptome analysis showed that the expression patterns of genes encoding phenylpropanoid pathway enzymes were different between the two sesame cultivars. Compared with white sesame, most of genes involved in oil biosynthesis were significantly down-regulated in black sesame.
Project description:The activation of plant immunity is typically associates with biosynthesis of defensive metabolites, such as jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA), to establish an effective defence response. However, constitutive activation of immunity or excessive JA production can trigger additional pathways that negatively affect plant growth. The mechanism underlying these processes, regulated by hormone signalling pathways and their crosstalk, remains elusive. In this study, we identified a homeobox transcription factor HB34 that differentially regulates jasmonic acid biosynthesis genes and growth-promoting genes to regulate such trade-off between plant immunity and growth. Under normal condition, HB34 represses the improper activation of JA-responsive genes and loss of HB34 led to excessive JA accumulation and constitutively activated JA response, which are accompanied by inhibited plant growth. Notably, overexpression of individual growth-promoting gene was sufficient to compromise the growth-inhibition. Upon pathogen infection, the transcription of HB34 is downregulated, effectively derepressing JA biosynthesis and enhancing plant disease resistance. Together, these findings reveal HB34 as a molecular switch that balance plant defense and growth by modulating JA biosynthesis and IAA signaling pathway.
Project description:Purple-grain wheat are caused by anthocyanin accumulation in the seed coat. But little is known about molecular mechanism of anthocyanin biosynthesis. The anthocyanin biosynthesis and accumulation were affected by light in purple-grain wheat. The spikes of purple-grain wheat Luozhen No.1 were bagged with four-layer Kraft paper bags after pollination. To identify genes involved in the anthocyanin biosynthesis, we sequenced four pericarp cDNA libraries, D15 (15 DAP), D20 (20 DAP) of shading treatment, and L15 (15 DAP), L20 (20 DAP) of untreated control using an Illumina HiSeqTM 2000. After quality control, raw reads are filtered into clean reads which will be aligned to the reference sequences. The alignment data is utilized to calculate distribution of reads on reference genes and mapping ratio, and proceed with downstream analysis including gene and isoform expression, deep analysis based on gene expression (PCA/correlation/screening differentially expressed genes and so on),exon expression, gene structure refinement, alternative splicing, novel transcript prediction and annotation, SNP detection, Indel detection. Further, we also perform deep analysis based on different expression genes, including Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, Pathway enrichment analysis, cluster analysis, and finding transcriptor factor.