Transcriptome analysis and gene function annotation of Bambusa emeiensis shoots based on high-throughput sequencing technology

Abstract

Bambusa emeiensis is one of the preponderant species of sympodial bamboos in Sichuan province of China, and has excellent fiber length and quality as raw materials for papermaking, textile and other industries. In this study, with the application of Illumina HiSeq™ 2000 platform, we analyzed transcriptome in B. emeiensis with different heights of 10, 50, 100 and 150 cm. A total of 69.28 M reads were obtained, and a sum up of 111 137 bands of Unigenes were acquired following de novo stitching, assembly and clustering, among which there were 63 094 bands that had been integrated in the COG, GO, KEGG, Swiss-Prot and Nr databases using annotated methods. These Unigenes not only had general functions, such as transcription and signal transduction, but were also involved in sucrose transport and metabolism, secondary metabolites and cell wall biosynthesis. There was significant difference regarding the expression of cellulose synthase gene in B. emeiensis at different heights, relevant genes were found that might be responsible for the regulation of the growth and development of B. emeiensis as well as the biosynthesis of cellulose and lignin. Our findings could provide some elementary theories for breed improvement of B. emeiensis.