Project description:In many plant species, flower stigma secretions are important in early stages of sexual reproduction. Previous chemical analysis and proteomic characterization of these exudates provided insights into their biological function. Nevertheless, the presence of nucleic acids in the stigma exudates has not been previously reported. Here we studied the stigma exudates of Pyrus communis, Pyrus pyrifolia and Pyrus syriaca, and showed them to harbor extracellular RNAs of various sizes. RNA sequencing revealed, for the first time, the presence of known Rosaceae mature micro-RNAs (miRs), also abundant in the stigma source tissue. Predicted targets of the exudate miRs in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome include genes involved in various biological processes. Several of these genes are pollen transcribed, suggesting possible involvement of exudate miRs in transcriptional regulation of the pollen. Moreover, extracellular miRs can potentially act across kingdoms and target genes of stigma interacting organisms/microorganisms, thus opening novel applicative avenues in HortSciences.
Project description:A custom oligoarray of Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) based on 9,812 independent ESTs from different tissues (fruits at various growth stages, vegetative and flower tissues) was designed and used for comprehensive investigation of gene expression before and during ripening (105 to 147 days after full bloom).
Project description:Using whole genome bisulfite sequencing to provide single-base resulution of DNA methylation status in pear fruits ( "Suli", Pyrus bretschneideri Rdhd. ) in four different stages.
Project description:A custom oligoarray of Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) based on 9,812 independent ESTs from different tissues (fruits at various growth stages, vegetative and flower tissues) was designed and used for comprehensive investigation of gene expression before and during ripening (105 to 147 days after full bloom). Gene expression in fruit development of Japanese pear was measured from 105 to 147 days after full bloom (DAFB). 147 DAFB is the optimum maturity for eating. Two to three independent experiments were performed at each time (105 to 147 DAFB) using different trees for each experiment.
