Transcriptome Analyses Reveal Candidate Pod Shattering-Associated Genes Involved in the Pod Ventral Sutures of Common Vetch (Vicia sativa L.)

Abstract

The seed dispersion caused by pod shattering is a form of propagation used by many wild species. Loss of seeds from pod shattering is frequent in the common vetch (Vicia sativa L.), an important self-pollinating annual forage legume. However, pod shattering is one of the most important defects that limits the reproduction of the vetch in the field and the usage as a leguminous forage crop. To better understand the vetch pod shattering mechanism, we used high-throughput RNA sequencing to assess the global changes in the transcriptomes of the pod ventral sutures of shattering-susceptible and shattering-resistant vetch accessions screened from 541 vetch germplasms. A total of 1,285 significantly differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) were detected, including 575 up-regulated unigenes and 710 down-regulated unigenes. Analyses of Gene Ontology and KEGG metabolic enrichment pathways of 1,285 DEGs indicated that 22 DEGs encoding cell wall modifications and hydrolases associated with pod shattering were highly expressed in shattering-susceptible accessions. These genes were mainly enriched in “hydrolase activity,” “cytoplasm,” and “carbohydrate metabolic process” systems. These cell wall modifications and hydrolases genes included β-glucosidase and endo-polygalacturonase, which work together to break down the glycosidic bonds of pectin and cellulose, and to promote the dissolution and disappearance of the cell wall in the ventral suture of the pod and make the pod more susceptible to shattering. We demonstrated the differences in gene transcription levels between the shattering-susceptible and shattering-resistant vetch accessions for the first time and our results provided valuable information for the identifying and characterizing of pod shattering regulation networks in vetch. This information may facilitate the future identification of pod shattering-related genes and their underlying molecular mechanisms in the common vetch.

Coordinated mechanisms of leaves and roots in response to drought stress underlying full-length transcriptome profiling in Vicia sativa L

“…High-quality transcripts were obtained from common vetch by PacBio Iso-Seq Single-molecule sequencing offers longer read lengths and higher consensus accuracies, which enable the generation of full-length transcripts and near referencequality genome assemblies, and the accuracy of genome annotation and transcriptome characterization are greatly enhanced, especially for species without reference genomes [23,24]. In the present study, a total of 30,427 full-length transcripts were generated; which is much longer than the previously reported common vetch transcriptome data, such as 772 bp [25], 1124 bp [30] and 921.55 bp [34]. Of these full-length transcripts had a higher annotated percentage than that recognized in previous studies of common vetch (66.10 and 83.48%) [25,30].…”

“…In the present study, a total of 30,427 full-length transcripts were generated; which is much longer than the previously reported common vetch transcriptome data, such as 772 bp [25], 1124 bp [30] and 921.55 bp [34]. Of these full-length transcripts had a higher annotated percentage than that recognized in previous studies of common vetch (66.10 and 83.48%) [25,30]. The remaining unannotated transcripts (528) may represent a common vetch-specific and novel gene pool, which will provide a good starting point in future experiments, including the preliminary functional characterization and investigation of their potential roles in drought stress responses in common vetch.…”

“…Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is an important self-pollinating annual forage legume and is of interest for drought prone regions as a good quality animal feedstock with minimal input [25,26]. Owing to its low cost, high nutritional value and broad environmental adaptation, common vetch not only has been used as a protein source to feed livestock but also for human consumption [27,28].…”

The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

“…Data 130 Release 3 includes 5.75 million spectra and stellar parameters for >3 million stars. LAMOST has an ideal view of the field observed for four years by the Kepler satellite, and several groups have used the ∼50,000 stars observed in the Kepler field to characterize its stellar populations (e.g., Dong et al 2014;Frasca et al 2016;Ren et al 2016;Chang et al 2017;Dong et al 2017). Other work based on LAMOST spectra includes measurements of stellar activity (e.g., Fang et al 2016) and identification of important subclasses of objects from ultra-metal-poor stars (e.g., and metalliclined Am stars (e.g., Hou et al 2015).…”

An efficient root transformation system for recalcitrant Vicia sativa

“…Current research focusses on understanding the molecular basis of important agricultural traits, aiming to facilitate molecular plant breeding (Moose and Mumm, 2008). The recent emergence of transcriptome data (Kim et al, 2015;Dong et al, 2017) will accelerate the identification of the genes controlling traits such as pod shattering (Dong et al, 2017), γ-glutamyl-β-cyanoalanine toxin accumulation (Kim et al, 2015) and drought tolerance in vetch (De la Rosa et al, 2020). However, it is difficult to demonstrate the function of candidate genes due to the lack of a robust transformation and plant regeneration system (Ford et al, 2008;Nguyen et al, 2020).…”