The sugarcane signal transduction (SUCAST) catalogue: prospecting signal transduction in sugarcane

Abstract

EST sequencing has enabled the discovery of many new genes in a vast array of organisms, and the utility of this approach to the scientific community is greatly increased by the establishment of fully annotated databases. The present study aimed to identify sugarcane ESTs sequenced in the sugarcane expressed sequence tag (SUCEST) project (http://sucest.lad.ic.unicamp.br) that corresponded to signal transduction components. We also produced a sugarcane signal transduction (SUCAST) catalogue (http://sucest.lad.ic.unicamp.br/private/mining-reports/QG/QG-mining.htm) that covered the main categories and pathways. Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) encoding enzymes for hormone (gibberellins, ethylene, auxins, abscisic acid and jasmonic acid) biosynthetic pathways were found and tissue specificity was inferred from their relative frequency of occurrence in the different libraries. Whenever possible, transducers of hormones and plant peptide signaling were catalogued to the respective pathway. Over 100 receptors were found in sugarcane, which contains a large family of Ser/Thr kinase receptors and also photoreceptors, histidine kinase receptors and their response regulators. G-protein and small GTPases were analyzed and compared to known members of these families found in mammalian and plant systems. Major kinase and phosphatase pathways were mapped, with special attention being given to the MAP kinase and the inositol pathway, both of which are well known in plants.

Chemical ripening of sugarcane with trinexapac-ethyl (Moddus®) — Mode of action and comparative efficacy

“…An exciting hypothesis that remains to be tested is whether varietal differences in the levels of the four main biologically active gibberellins (GA 1 , GA 3 , GA 4, and GA 7 ) responsible for internode elongation in sugarcane (Souza et al, 2001) could explain some of these differences, since Moddus ® inhibits only GA 1 synthesis . If this is the case, the possibility of rapid screening of varieties for GA 1 , GA 3 , GA 4, and GA 7 composition, to predict responsiveness to Moddus ® , exists.…”

GRASSIUS: A Platform for Comparative Regulatory Genomics across the Grasses

“…PlnTFDB and PlantTFDB classified TFs into families based on specific rules describing which domains are required and which ones are forbidden for assigning a particular protein to a family. As part of the SUCAST project, sugarcane TFs were identified from the SUCEST database and classified based on PFAM domains and BLAST similarity to known TFs (Souza et al, 2001).…”

Evaluation of Monocot and Eudicot Divergence Using the Sugarcane Transcriptome

“…Direct BLAST comparison can generate genetic information such as the confirmation of gene loci. The distribution of ESTs in different libraries (representing the mRNA expressed in different tissues or plant culture conditions) may also reflect a quantitative means of generating gene expression patterns for specific genes (Souza et al, 2001). For this, the SASs provide an important fraction of putative full-length genes (Vettore et al, 2003).…”