College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.
Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China.
Plant Physiol Biochem. 2018 Nov;132:95-103. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2018.08.039. Epub 2018 Aug 30.
Bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] is an important perennial warm-season turfgrass species with great economic value. However, the reference genome and transcriptome information are still deficient in bermudagrass, which severely impedes functional and molecular breeding studies. In this study, through analyzing a mixture sample of leaves, stolons, shoots, roots and flowers with single-molecule long-read sequencing technology from Pacific Biosciences (PacBio), we reported the first full-length transcriptome dataset of bermudagrass (C. dactylon cultivar Yangjiang) comprising 78,192 unigenes. Among the unigenes, 66,409 were functionally annotated, whereas 27,946 were found to have two or more isoforms. The annotated full-length unigenes provided many new insights into gene sequence characteristics and systematic phylogeny of bermudagrass. By comparison with transcriptome dataset in nine grass species, KEGG pathway analyses further revealed that C photosynthesis-related genes, notably the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and pyruvate, phosphate dikinase genes, are specifically enriched in bermudagrass. These results not only explained the possible reason why bermudagrass flourishes in warm areas but also provided a solid basis for future studies in this important turfgrass species.
百慕大草[Cynodon dactylon（L.）Pers.]是一种重要的多年生暖季草坪草种，具有巨大的经济价值。然而，百慕大草的参考基因组和转录组信息仍然不足，这严重阻碍了功能和分子育种研究。在这项研究中，我们通过分析来自 Pacific Biosciences（PacBio）的叶片、匍匐茎、嫩枝、根和花的混合样本的单分子长读测序技术，报道了第一个全长转录组数据集，包括 78192 个基因。在这些基因中，有 66409 个具有功能注释，而 27946 个基因具有两个或更多的亚型。注释的全长基因提供了许多关于百慕大草基因序列特征和系统发育的新见解。通过与 9 种草种的转录组数据集比较，KEGG 通路分析进一步表明，C 光合作用相关基因，特别是磷酸烯醇丙酮酸羧化酶和丙酮酸、磷酸二激酶基因，在百慕大草中特异性富集。这些结果不仅解释了百慕大草在温暖地区繁茂生长的可能原因，也为未来对这一重要草坪草种的研究提供了坚实的基础。
