Identification and Validation of Expressed Sequence Tags from Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajanL.) Root

Abstract

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L) Millsp.) is an important food legume crop of rain fed agriculture in the arid and semiarid tropics of the world. It has deep and extensive root system which serves a number of important physiological and metabolic functions in plant development and growth. In order to identify genes associated with pigeonpea root, ESTs were generated from the root tissues of pigeonpea (GRG-295 genotype) by normalized cDNA library. A total of 105 high quality ESTs were generated by sequencing of 250 random clones which resulted in 72 unigenes comprising 25 contigs and 47 singlets. The ESTs were assigned to 9 functional categories on the basis of their putative function. In order to validate the possible expression of transcripts, four genes, namely, S-adenosylmethionine synthetase, phosphoglycerate kinase, serine carboxypeptidase, and methionine aminopeptidase, were further analyzed by reverse transcriptase PCR. The possible role of the identified transcripts and their functions associated with root will also be a valuable resource for the functional genomics study in legume crop.

The Pigeonpea Genome: An Overview

“…Prior to the introduction of NGS techniques in pigeonpea, different research groups Kumar et al 2014) used Sanger-derived EST resources to access the transcribed regions in the pigeonpea genome.…”

“…CcCYP (C. cajan cyclophilin), and CcCDR (C. cajan cold and drought regulatory) genes, in Arabidopsis confirmed the plant's tolerance under abiotic stress. Kumar et al (2014) generated 105 high-quality ESTs from the root tissues of pigeonpea genotype GRG295. Further, the expression of four transcripts, namely S-adenosylmethionine synthetase, phosphoglycerate kinase, serine carboxypeptidase, and methionine aminopeptidase, was validated through reverse transcriptase PCR.…”

Modern Genomic Tools for Pigeonpea Improvement: Status and Prospects

“…Prior to the introduction of NGS techniques in pigeonpea, different research groups (Raju et al 2010, Priyanka et al 2010Kumar et al 2014) used Sanger-derived EST resources to access the transcribed regions in the pigeonpea genome.…”