Differential expression analysis of transcripts related to oil metabolism in maturing seeds of Jatropha curcas L.

Abstract

Jatropha curcas has been widely studied at the molecular level due to its potential as an alternative source of fuel. Many of the reports till date on this plant have focussed mainly on genes contributing to the accumulation of oil in its seeds. A suppression subtractive hybridization strategy was employed to identify genes which are differentially expressed in the mid maturation stage of J. curcas seeds. Random expressed sequence tag sequencing of the cDNA subtraction library resulted in 385 contigs and 1,428 singletons, with 591 expressed sequence tags mapping for enzymes having catalytic roles in various metabolic pathways. Differences in transcript levels in early and mid-to-late maturation stages of seeds were also investigated using sequence information obtained from the cDNA subtraction library. Seven out of 12 transcripts having putative roles in central carbon metabolism were up regulated in early seed maturation stage while lipid metabolism related transcripts were detected at higher levels in the later stage of seed maturation. Interestingly, 4 of the transcripts revealed putative alternative splice variants that were specifically present or up regulated in the early or late maturation stage of the seeds. Transcript expression patterns from the current study using maturing seeds of J. curcas reveal a subtle balancing of oil accumulation and utilization, which may be influenced by their energy requirements.

Gene expression profiling identifies pathways involved in seed maturation of Jatropha curcas

“…The transcripts involved in the expression of the triacylglycerol and FA desaturation biosynthesis processes increased during middle to late stages of seed maturation, something previously reported in Brassica rapa [83], which is also in agreement with the current results. This could be explained by the rise of storage lipid production, which is also confirmed by previous research studies [17,18,[84][85][86].…”

Identification of genes associated with the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acid and oil accumulation in herbaceous peony ‘Hangshao’ (Paeonia lactiflora ‘Hangshao’) seeds based on transcriptome analysis

“…However, the regulation of oil content and fatty acid composition is a complex process, which varies in oil biosynthesis phases and accumulation. Nevertheless, the difference in regulatory mechanisms in different species is attributed to the variation in oil content among species [ 35 ]. Mainly, the molecular regulators of oil content and fatty acid composition consist of genes involved in fatty acid and TAG assembly [ 36 ].…”

Enriching Genomic Resources and Marker Development from Transcript Sequences ofJatropha curcasfor Microgravity Studies

“…With the advent of low-cost next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, transcriptome analysis through NGS has become a fast and powerful approach for genome-wide gene discovery and molecular marker development [19–21]. Transcriptomics has been used in jatropha to study gene expression profiles related to cold stress [22]; gene expression in seeds [23]; oil metabolism in maturing seeds [24]; impact of cytokinin on inflorescence buds [25]; metabolic pathways in drought tolerance [26]; and apical meristem [27]. Availability of these resources helps in jatropha gene discovery and crop improvement using molecular tools.…”

“…The further enriched genomic resources and molecular markers will facilitate the germplasm evaluation and important gene discovery and elevate the breeding programs for jatropha cultivar improvement. Even though a few NGS based transcriptomes were assembled, all the transcripts in jatropha have not been fully assembled due to high dynamics of gene expression and sequence depth limitation [14, 16, 17, 22–24]. Transcriptomes in young leaves and calli presumably cover the transcripts of majority of the functional genes.…”