Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals new molecular pathways for cucumber genes related to sex determination

Abstract

Key message Transcriptome data and qPCR analysis revealed new insight into genes regulatory mechanism related to cucumber sex determination. Abstract Cucumber ( Cucumis sativus L.) is an economically important crop cultivated worldwide. Enhancing the genomic resources for cucumber may enable the regulation of traits relevant to crop productivity and quality. Sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools provide opportunities for the development of such resources. The aims of this study were to identify and characterize the genes involved in sex determination and flower morphogenesis in cucumber isogenic lines that differed regarding flower sex type. We obtained transcripts for 933 genes related to shoot apex development, among which 310 were differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among the male, female, and hermaphroditic lines. We performed gene ontology and molecular network analyses and explored the DEGs related to already known processes like: hormone synthesis and signaling, lipid and sugar metabolism; and also newly discovered processes related to cell wall, membrane, and cytoskeleton modifications; ion homeostasis which appears to be important for ethylene perception and signaling, and genes expression mediated by transcription factors related to floral organ identities. We proposed a new model of regulatory mechanism network of sex development in cucumber. Our results may be useful for clarifying the molecular genetics and the functional mechanisms underlying the sex determination processes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00497-019-00362-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Transcriptome sequencing and screening of genes related to sex determination of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim

“…demonstrated that external hormones and environment affected the process of sex determination, and genes related to, ethylene synthesis and induction such as genes CsACS1G, CsACS11, CsACS2, CsACO2 and CsWIP1, were verified involved in sex regulation [8,9]. Although more and more metabolic pathways and genes have been found involved in gender regulation, the regulatory mechanism is not clear [9]. As a Chinese traditional medicinal plant, TK was less known by scientists in other countries besides China, with no information of genome reference and transcriptome data and few EST sequences.…”

Genetic and molecular bases of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) sex determination

“…Cucumber as a model species Because of their sexual lability, cucurbits, and cucumber in particular, have become an important system for studying the developmental genetics of sex determination (Malepszy and Niemirowicz-Szczytt 1991;Pawełkowicz et al 2016a;Pawełkowicz et al 2019;Grumet et al 2017). Herein, we review some features of cucumber that make it a good model to study sex determination.…”

“…The results of this study uncovered many genes (e.g., ACS, Asr1, CsIAA2, CS-AUX1, and TLP) and transcription factors (e.g., EREBP-9) involved in plant hormone signaling pathways, which indicates that these genes may play an important role in sex determination.Recently, based on high-throughput RNAseq analysis from the shoot apex derived from cucumber lines of different sex types (females, males, and hermaphrodites), 310 DEGs were identified and new sex-related model of molecular networks (PPI) was described. This contains processes such as hormones, lipid, and sugar metabolism; processes related to cell wall, membrane, and cytoskeleton modifications; ion homeostasis which appears to be important for ethylene perception and signaling; and genes expression mediated by transcription factors related to floral organ identities (Pawełkowicz et al 2019).…”

“…Sex determination in higher plants is of fundamental biological interest and has great practical significance for fruit and seed production (Renner 2016). At several points during floral morphogenesis, this process is regulated on many omics levels by a complex regulatory network of interacting genes (Pawełkowicz et al 2019). Three floral sex types can be described: male, female, and bisexual.…”

The genetic basis of sex determination in grapevines (Vitis spp.)

“…Possibly under the regulation of unique upstream regulatory sequences, YABBY was more highly expressed in male flowers. Likewise, SKU5 is up-regulated in mature cucumber pollen grains; it was proposed that SKU5 may function during cucumber floral development and pollen formation (Pawełkowicz et al, 2019) and is generally associated with two-directional growth and the regulation of cell wall expansion (Sedbrook et al, 2002). M-linked polymorphisms were found within an aldolase-coding gene; a proteomic study of pumpkin nectar found an aldolase uniquely in male nectar (Chatt et al, 2018), and a putative aldolase- (Devani et al, 2019).…”