Dissection of the Inner Female and Male Cone Differentiation Mechanisms at Different Development Stages in Masson’s Pine (Pinus massonianaLamb.) by RNA-Seq Techniques

Abstract

The differentiation of male and female cones is important for growth and reproduction for Masson’s pine (Pinus massonianaLamb.). The inner regulation mechanisms of the male and female cones differentiation will helpful for Masson’s pine breeding programs. In order to dissection molecular mechanisms ofP. massonianadifferentiation, male and female cones of early, middle and late development stages were used for comprehensive transcriptomic analysis and quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) verifications. The total numbers of unigenes were 81,850, and mean length was 812 bp in transcriptome analysis. Gene function classification by GO analysis showed that main difference was found mainly in 3 processes, including biological process. KEGG classification showed that differential expressed genes (DEGs) were belong to metabolic pathways and transcriptional regulations. 10 DEGs expression, including flower-like protein (PmTFL), Floricaula (PmFL), APETALA2-related transcription factor2 (PmAP2) that appeared to have central roles in response to cones differentiation was verified via qRT-PCR. The transcriptomic analysis revealed difference of male and female cones differentiation were mainly related to biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, metabolic pathways genes and AP2 transcription factors. These results showed that inner mechanisms of male and female cones differentiations are related to transcriptional regulation of metabolic pathways and helpful for further selection and breeding programs ofPinus massonianaLamb.