National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, NARO., Ano, Tsu, Mie 514-2392, Japan.
Gene. 2010 Jan 15;450(1-2):76-84. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2009.10.006.
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is a widely grown vegetable crop that belongs to the genus Solanum, which is comprised of more than 1000 species of wide genetic and phenotypic variation. Unlike tomato and potato, Solanum crops that belong to subgenus Potatoe and have been targets for comprehensive genomic studies, eggplant is endemic to the Old World and belongs to a different subgenus, Leptostemonum, and therefore, would be a unique member for comparative molecular biology in Solanum. In this study, more than 60,000 eggplant cDNA clones from various tissues and treatments were sequenced from both the 5'- and 3'-ends, and a unigene set consisting of 16,245 unique sequences was constructed. Functional annotations based on sequence similarity to known plant reference datasets revealed a distribution of functional categories almost similar to that of tomato, while 1316 unigenes were suggested to be eggplant-specific. Sequence-based comparative analysis using putative orthologous gene groups setup by reciprocal sequence comparison among six solanaceous species suggested that eggplant and its wild ally Solanum torvum were clustered separately from subgenus Potatoe species, and then, all Solanum species were clustered separately from the genus Capsicum. Microsatellite motif distribution was different among species and likely to be coincident with the phylogenetic relationships. Furthermore, the eggplant unigene dataset exhibited its utility in transcriptome analysis by the SAGE strategy where a considerable number of short tag sequences of interest were successfully assigned to unigenes and their functional annotations. The eggplant ESTs and 16k unigene set developed in this study would be a useful resource not only for molecular genetics and breeding in eggplant itself, but for expanding the scope of comparative biology in Solanum species.
茄子（Solanum melongena L.）是一种广泛种植的蔬菜作物，属于茄属，该属包含超过 1000 个种，具有广泛的遗传和表型变异。与番茄和马铃薯不同，属于马铃薯亚属并已成为全面基因组研究目标的茄属作物，茄子是旧大陆的特有种，属于不同的亚属 Leptostemonum，因此，它将是茄属植物比较分子生物学中的一个独特成员。在这项研究中，从各种组织和处理中测序了超过 60000 个茄子 cDNA 克隆的 5' 和 3' 末端，并构建了一个包含 16245 个独特序列的基因集。基于与已知植物参考数据集的序列相似性进行的功能注释揭示了功能类别分布几乎与番茄相似，而 1316 个基因被认为是茄子特有的。使用通过在六个茄属物种之间进行相互序列比较建立的假定直系同源基因组进行基于序列的比较分析表明，茄子及其野生近缘种 Solanum torvum 与马铃薯亚属物种聚类分开，然后，所有茄属物种与辣椒属聚类分开。微卫星基序在物种之间的分布不同，可能与系统发育关系一致。此外，茄子基因集在转录组分析中表现出了其有用性，通过 SAGE 策略成功地将相当数量的短标签序列分配到基因和它们的功能注释中。本研究中开发的茄子 ESTs 和 16k 基因集不仅将成为茄子自身分子遗传学和育种的有用资源，而且还将扩大茄属植物比较生物学的范围。
