Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil.
Centro de Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Physiol Plant. 2019 Aug;166(4):979-995. doi: 10.1111/ppl.12861. Epub 2018 Nov 28.
Strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duch.) is an economically important fruit with a high demand owing to its good taste and medicinal properties. However, its cultivation is affected by various biotic and abiotic stresses. Plants exhibit several intrinsic mechanisms to deal with stresses. In the case of strawberry, the mechanisms highlighting the response against these stresses remain to be elucidated, which has hampered the efforts to develop and cultivate strawberry plants with high yield and quality. Although a virtual reference genome of F. ananassa has recently been published, there is still a lack of information on the expression of genes in response to various stresses. Therefore, to provide molecular information for further studies with strawberry plants, we present the reference transcriptome dataset of F. ananassa, assembled and annotated from deep RNA-Seq data of fruits cultivated under salinity and drought stresses. We also systematically arranged a series of transcripts differentially expressed during these stresses, with an emphasis on genes related to the accumulation of ascorbic acid (AsA). Ascorbic acid is the most potent antioxidant present in these fruits and highly considered during biofortification. A comparison of the expression profile of these genes by RT-qPCR with the content of AsA in the fruits verified a tight regulation and balance between the expression of genes, from biosynthesis, degradation and recycling pathways, resulting in the reduced content of AsA in fruits under these stresses. These results provide a useful repertoire of genes for metabolic engineering, thereby improving the tolerance to stresses.
草莓（ Fragaria ananassa Duch.）是一种经济上重要的水果，因其良好的口感和药用特性而需求量大。然而，其种植受到各种生物和非生物胁迫的影响。植物表现出几种内在机制来应对胁迫。在草莓的情况下，突出其对这些胁迫的响应的机制仍有待阐明，这阻碍了开发和培育具有高产和高质量的草莓植物的努力。尽管最近发布了草莓的虚拟参考基因组，但关于基因在应对各种胁迫时的表达信息仍然缺乏。因此，为了为进一步研究草莓植物提供分子信息，我们展示了草莓果实盐胁迫和干旱胁迫下的深度 RNA-Seq 数据组装和注释的参考转录组数据集。我们还系统地排列了一系列在这些胁迫下差异表达的转录本，重点是与抗坏血酸（AsA）积累相关的基因。抗坏血酸是这些水果中最有效的抗氧化剂，在生物强化过程中高度考虑。通过 RT-qPCR 与果实中 AsA 含量比较这些基因的表达谱，证实了在这些胁迫下，基因的表达在生物合成、降解和回收途径之间存在紧密的调控和平衡，导致果实中 AsA 含量降低。这些结果为代谢工程提供了一个有用的基因库，从而提高了对胁迫的耐受性。
