Abstract
BackgroundAsexual seed formation (apomixis) has been observed in diverse plant families but is rare in crop plants. The generation of apomictic crops would revolutionize agriculture, as clonal seed production provides a low cost and efficient way to produce hybrid seed. Hieracium (Asteraceae) is a model system for studying the molecular components of gametophytic apomixis (asexual seed reproduction).ResultsIn this study, a reference transcriptome was produced from apomictic Hieracium undergoing the key apomictic events of apomeiosis, parthenogenesis and autonomous endosperm development. In addition, transcriptome sequences from pre-pollination and post-pollination stages were generated from a loss of parthenogenesis (lop) mutant accession that exhibits loss of parthenogenesis and autonomous endosperm development. The transcriptome is composed of 147,632 contigs, 50% of which were annotated with orthologous genes and their probable function. The transcriptome was used to identify transcripts differentially expressed during apomictic and pollination dependent (lop) seed development. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis of differentially expressed transcripts showed that an important difference between apomictic and pollination dependent seed development was the expression of genes relating to epigenetic gene regulation. Genes that mark key developmental stages, i.e. aposporous embryo sac development and seed development, were also identified through their enhanced expression at those stages.ConclusionThe production of a comprehensive floral reference transcriptome for Hieracium provides a valuable resource for research into the molecular basis of apomixis and the identification of the genes underlying the LOP locus.
Highlights
IntroductionAsexual seed formation (apomixis) has been observed in diverse plant families but is rare in crop plants
Asexual seed formation has been observed in diverse plant families but is rare in crop plants
To investigate transcriptional changes occurring during parthenogenesis and fertilization induced embryo developments, stages before embryogenesis and after embryogenesis for R35 and lop138 were selected
Summary
Asexual seed formation (apomixis) has been observed in diverse plant families but is rare in crop plants. Apomixis is a type of asexual plant reproduction that bypasses meiosis and fertilization to result in viable seeds that are maternal clones [1]. It is observed in around 400 plant species belonging to 40 families, very few of these plants are crop species [2]. Introducing the apomixis trait into commercial hybrid seeds would allow fixing hybrid vigor [2]. Because of this agricultural application the ability to transfer or engineer. The central cell proliferates autonomously to give rise to the endosperm, usually it requires fertilization by one sperm cell
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