Hanene Hosni1, Abdoulaye Diallo1, Fabienne Morcillo2,3, Virginie Vaissayre1, Myriam Collin1, Christine Tranchant-Dubreuil1, Stéphane Dussert1, Thierry Joët1, Felipe Castaño4, Xavier Marquínez5, Fred W Stauffer6, Donald R Hodel7, Juan Jose Castillo Mont8, Hélène Adam1, Stefan Jouannic1, James W Tregear1. 1. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR DIADE, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France. 2. CIRAD, DIADE, Montpellier, France. 3. DIADE, Université de Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, France. 4. Universidad Industrial de Santander, Escuela de Biología, Calle, Bucaramanga, Colombia. 5. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Departamento de Biología, Carrera, Bogotá, Colombia. 6. Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève, Université de Genève, Laboratoire de Systématique Végétale et Biodiversité, Chambésy, Switzerland. 7. University of California, Cooperative Extension, Alhambra, CA, USA. 8. Facultad de Agronomia, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The pacaya palm is a dioecious neotropical palm species that is exploited in Latin America for its male inflorescence, which is edible when immature. It is cultivated, in a non-intensive manner, in Guatemala, where a morphotype occurs that produces much larger, more highly branched inflorescences compared with wild palms. We sought to identify molecular factors underlying this phenotypic divergence, which is likely to be a product of domestication. METHODS: We performed RNA-seq-based studies on immature pacaya palm male inflorescences in order to identify genes that might be directly or indirectly affected in their expression in relation to domestication. We also measured the accumulation of a range of soluble sugar molecules to provide information on the biochemical status of the two different types of material. KEY RESULTS: A total of 408 genes were found to display significantly different expression levels between the wild and cultivated morphotypes. Three different functional categories were found to be enriched in the gene set that was upregulated in the cultivated morphotype: redox balance; secondary metabolism; and transport. Several sugars were found to accumulate at higher levels in inflorescences of the cultivated morphotype, in particular myo-inositol, fructose and glucose. CONCLUSIONS: The observed upregulation of redox-related genes in the cultivated morphotype is corroborated by the observation of higher myo-inositol accumulation, which has been shown to be associated with enhanced scavenging of reactive oxygen species in other plants and which may affect meristem activity.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The pacaya palm is a dioecious neotropical palm species that is exploited in Latin America for its male inflorescence, which is edible when immature. It is cultivated, in a non-intensive manner, in Guatemala, where a morphotype occurs that produces much larger, more highly branched inflorescences compared with wild palms. We sought to identify molecular factors underlying this phenotypic divergence, which is likely to be a product of domestication. METHODS: We performed RNA-seq-based studies on immature pacaya palm male inflorescences in order to identify genes that might be directly or indirectly affected in their expression in relation to domestication. We also measured the accumulation of a range of soluble sugar molecules to provide information on the biochemical status of the two different types of material. KEY RESULTS: A total of 408 genes were found to display significantly different expression levels between the wild and cultivated morphotypes. Three different functional categories were found to be enriched in the gene set that was upregulated in the cultivated morphotype: redox balance; secondary metabolism; and transport. Several sugars were found to accumulate at higher levels in inflorescences of the cultivated morphotype, in particular myo-inositol, fructose and glucose. CONCLUSIONS: The observed upregulation of redox-related genes in the cultivated morphotype is corroborated by the observation of higher myo-inositol accumulation, which has been shown to be associated with enhanced scavenging of reactive oxygen species in other plants and which may affect meristem activity.
Authors: Zhongwei Lin; Xianran Li; Laura M Shannon; Cheng-Ting Yeh; Ming L Wang; Guihua Bai; Zhao Peng; Jiarui Li; Harold N Trick; Thomas E Clemente; John Doebley; Patrick S Schnable; Mitchell R Tuinstra; Tesfaye T Tesso; Frank White; Jianming Yu Journal: Nat Genet Date: 2012-05-13 Impact factor: 38.330
Authors: Rajinder Singh; Meilina Ong-Abdullah; Eng-Ti Leslie Low; Mohamad Arif Abdul Manaf; Rozana Rosli; Rajanaidu Nookiah; Leslie Cheng-Li Ooi; Siew-Eng Ooi; Kuang-Lim Chan; Mohd Amin Halim; Norazah Azizi; Jayanthi Nagappan; Blaire Bacher; Nathan Lakey; Steven W Smith; Dong He; Michael Hogan; Muhammad A Budiman; Ernest K Lee; Rob DeSalle; David Kudrna; Jose Luis Goicoechea; Rod A Wing; Richard K Wilson; Robert S Fulton; Jared M Ordway; Robert A Martienssen; Ravigadevi Sambanthamurthi Journal: Nature Date: 2013-07-24 Impact factor: 49.962