Identification of the flowering genes in Citrullus colocynthis L. Medicinal plant

Background and Aim: The Floral development and reproductive organ growth comprise a series of organized mechanisms regulated by key signals, endogenous and environmental factors. Since the flower growth is the basis of fruit and seed production in plants, clarifying and identifying the mechanisms and genes of the sexual and flowering process can help develop new techniques for sexual manipulation by researchers and breeders. The NGS strategy is a rigorous approach to investigate the network of molecules involved in the process that is currently used to characterize the flowering genes in the Citrullus colocynthis, whose flowers are sexually different.Methods: In this study, RNA sequencing technique using the Illumina HiSeq۲۵۰۰ platform was performed to identify the transcriptome of male and female inflorescences of C. colocynthis medicinal plant. The raw reads of sequencing cleared using quality control tools such as FastQC and Trimmomatic software, and high-quality reads were obtained. High-quality reads were analyzed in bioinformatics steps, including using the de novo assembly Evidential-gene assembler and functional annotation using the KAAS database, respectively.Results: RNA sequencing of C. colocynthis resulted in the production of۲۲۳۹۵۵۹۷ and ۲۲۳۳۰۵۲۹ pair-ended reads for male-inflorescence and female-inflorescence, respectively. Also, the de novo assembly using the Evidential-gene program obtained ۵۵,۳۲۶ and ۵۵,۰۲۲ unigenes for male and female inflorescences, respectively, which were used to interpret the various databases. Gene Ontology (GO) and molecular pathways of transcripts related to sex formation were presented based on functional annotation of processes such as hormone synthesis and signaling, lipid metabolism and glucose. A group of transcription factors (TF) were identified that are important regulators of cellular processes in plant development, such as the MADS-box, play a role in the sex determination of flowering organs.Conclusion: We firstly reported the RNA sequencing of C. colocynthis inflorescences using the Illumina HiSeq۲۵۰۰ platform and the identification of flowering and sex-determining genes in the C. colocynthis plant. The transcriptome data in this study provided a theoretical basis for flower development mechanism of C. colocynthis, and a basis for further research to find molecular reproductive breeding of C. colocynthis.

کلیدواژه ها:

Citrullus colocynthis ، Inflorescence sexuality ، RNA sequencing