Lipid and sugar metabolism play an essential role in pollen development and male sterility: a case analysis in Brassica napus.

AIMS

The genic male sterility (GMS) system is an important strategy for generating heterosis in plants. To better understand the essential role of lipid and sugar metabolism and to identify additional candidates for pollen development and male sterility, transcriptome and metabolome analysis of a GMS line of 1205AB in B. napus was used as a case study.

DATA RESOURCES GENERATED

To characterize the GMS system, the transcriptome and metabolome profiles were generated for 24 samples and 48 samples of 1205AB in B. napus, respectively. Transcriptome analysis yielded a total of 156.52 Gb of clean data and revealed the expression levels of 109,541 genes and 8,501 novel genes. In addition, a total of 1,353 metabolites were detected in the metabolomic analysis, including 784 in positive ion mode and 569 in negative ion mode.

KEY RESULTS

A total of 15,635 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 83 differential metabolites (DMs) were identified from different comparison groups, most of which were involved in lipid and sugar metabolism. The combination of transcriptome and metabolome analysis revealed 49 orthologous GMS genes related to lipid metabolism and 46 orthologous GMS genes related to sugar metabolism, as well as 45 novel genes.

UTILITY OF THE RESOURCE

The transcriptome and metabolome profiles and their analysis provide useful reference data for the future discovery of additional GMS genes and the development of more robust male sterility breeding systems for use in the production of plant hybrids.