State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.
BMC Plant Biol. 2024 Apr 6;24(1):250. doi: 10.1186/s12870-024-04915-x.
Alternative splicing (AS), a pivotal post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism, profoundly amplifies diversity and complexity of transcriptome and proteome. Liriodendron chinense (Hemsl.) Sarg., an excellent ornamental tree species renowned for its distinctive leaf shape, which resembles the mandarin jacket. Despite the documented potential genes related to leaf development of L. chinense, the underlying post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms remain veiled. Here, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome to clarify the genome-wide landscape of the AS pattern and the spectrum of spliced isoforms during leaf developmental stages in L. chinense. Our investigation unveiled 50,259 AS events, involving 10,685 genes (32.9%), with intron retention as the most prevalent events. Notably, the initial stage of leaf development witnessed the detection of 804 differentially AS events affiliated with 548 genes. Although both differentially alternative splicing genes (DASGs) and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched into morphogenetic related pathways during the transition from fishhook (P2) to lobed (P7) leaves, there was only a modest degree of overlap between DASGs and DEGs. Furthermore, we conducted a comprehensively AS analysis on homologous genes involved in leaf morphogenesis, and most of which are subject to post-transcriptional regulation of AS. Among them, the AINTEGUMENTA-LIKE transcript factor LcAIL5 was characterization in detailed, which experiences skipping exon (SE), and two transcripts displayed disparate expression patterns across multiple stages. Overall, these findings yield a comprehensive understanding of leaf development regulation via AS, offering a novel perspective for further deciphering the mechanism of plant leaf morphogenesis.
可变剪接（AS）是一种关键的转录后调控机制，可极大地增加转录组和蛋白质组的多样性和复杂性。鹅掌楸（Liriodendron chinense）是一种优秀的观赏树种，以其独特的叶片形状而闻名，其叶片形状类似于中山装。尽管已经记录了与鹅掌楸叶片发育相关的潜在基因，但潜在的转录后调控机制仍然未知。在这里，我们对转录组进行了全面分析，以阐明鹅掌楸叶片发育阶段的全基因组 AS 模式和剪接异构体谱。我们的研究揭示了 50259 个 AS 事件，涉及 10685 个基因（32.9%），其中内含子保留是最常见的事件。值得注意的是，在叶片发育的初始阶段，检测到 804 个与 548 个基因相关的差异 AS 事件。尽管差异剪接基因（DASGs）和差异表达基因（DEGs）在从鱼钩（P2）到叶状（P7）叶片的转变过程中都富集到形态发生相关途径中，但 DASGs 和 DEGs 之间只有适度的重叠。此外，我们对参与叶片形态发生的同源基因进行了全面的 AS 分析，其中大多数基因都受到 AS 的转录后调控。在这些基因中，AINTEGUMENTA-LIKE 转录因子 LcAIL5 被详细描述，其经历外显子跳跃（SE），并且两个转录本在多个阶段表现出不同的表达模式。总体而言，这些发现提供了对 AS 通过 AS 调控叶片发育的全面理解，为进一步揭示植物叶片形态发生机制提供了新的视角。
