Lu Zhaogeng, Xu Jing, Li Weixing, Zhang Li, Cui Jiawen, He Qingsong, Wang Li, Jin Biao
College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Yangzhou University Yangzhou, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2017 Mar 1;8:261. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00261. eCollection 2017.
Sterile and fertile flowers are an important evolutionary developmental (evo-devo) phenotype in angiosperm flowers, playing important roles in pollinator attraction and sexual reproductive success. However, the gene regulatory mechanisms underlying fertile and sterile flower differentiation and development remain largely unknown. f. , which possesses fertile and sterile flowers in a single inflorescence, is a useful candidate species for investigating the regulatory networks in differentiation and development. We developed a -assembled flower reference transcriptome. Using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), we compared the expression patterns of fertile and sterile flowers isolated from the same inflorescence over its rapid developmental stages. The flower reference transcriptome consisted of 105,683 non-redundant transcripts, of which 5,675 transcripts showed significant differential expression between fertile and sterile flowers. Combined with morphological and cytological changes between fertile and sterile flowers, we identified expression changes of many genes potentially involved in reproductive processes, phytohormone signaling, and cell proliferation and expansion using RNA-seq and qRT-PCR. In particular, many transcription factors (TFs), including MADS-box family members and ABCDE-class genes, were identified, and expression changes in TFs involved in multiple functions were analyzed and highlighted to determine their roles in regulating fertile and sterile flower differentiation and development. Our large-scale transcriptional analysis of fertile and sterile flowers revealed the dynamics of transcriptional networks and potentially key components in regulating differentiation and development of fertile and sterile flowers in f. . Our data provide a useful resource for transcriptional research and offer insights into gene regulation of differentiation of diverse evo-devo processes in flowers.
不育花和可育花是被子植物花中一种重要的进化发育（evo-devo）表型，在吸引传粉者和有性生殖成功方面发挥着重要作用。然而，可育花和不育花分化与发育的基因调控机制仍 largely 未知。f. 在单个花序中同时拥有可育花和不育花，是研究分化与发育调控网络的一个有用候选物种。我们构建了一个 - 组装的花参考转录组。利用 RNA 测序（RNA-seq），我们比较了从同一花序中分离出的可育花和不育花在其快速发育阶段的表达模式。花参考转录组由 105,683 个非冗余转录本组成，其中 5,675 个转录本在可育花和不育花之间表现出显著差异表达。结合可育花和不育花之间的形态学和细胞学变化，我们使用 RNA-seq 和 qRT-PCR 鉴定了许多可能参与生殖过程、植物激素信号传导以及细胞增殖和扩展的基因的表达变化。特别是，鉴定出了许多转录因子（TFs），包括 MADS-box 家族成员和 ABCDE 类基因，并分析和突出了参与多种功能的 TFs 的表达变化，以确定它们在调控可育花和不育花分化与发育中的作用。我们对可育花和不育花的大规模转录分析揭示了 f. 中可育花和不育花分化与发育调控转录网络的动态以及潜在的关键成分。我们的数据为 f. 的转录研究提供了有用的资源，并为花中不同 evo-devo 过程分化的基因调控提供了见解。
