Abstract
Colored calla lily is the short name for the species or hybrids in section Aestivae of genus Zantedeschia. It is currently one of the most popular flower plants in the world due to its beautiful flower spathe and long postharvest life. However, little genomic information and few molecular markers are available for its genetic improvement. Here, de novo transcriptome sequencing was performed to produce large transcript sequences for Z. rehmannii cv. ‘Rehmannii’ using an Illumina HiSeq 2000 instrument. More than 59.9 million cDNA sequence reads were obtained and assembled into 39,298 unigenes with an average length of 1,038 bp. Among these, 21,077 unigenes showed significant similarity to protein sequences in the non-redundant protein database (Nr) and in the Swiss-Prot, Gene Ontology (GO), Cluster of Orthologous Group (COG) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. Moreover, a total of 117 unique transcripts were then defined that might regulate the flower spathe development of colored calla lily. Additionally, 9,933 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 7,162 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified as putative molecular markers. High-quality primers for 200 SSR loci were designed and selected, of which 58 amplified reproducible amplicons were polymorphic among 21 accessions of colored calla lily. The sequence information and molecular markers in the present study will provide valuable resources for genetic diversity analysis, germplasm characterization and marker-assisted selection in the genus Zantedeschia.
Highlights
Zantedeschia species, commonly known as calla lily or arum lily, belong to the genus Zantedeschia in the family Araceae
67.3% (26,455) were shorter than 1,000 bp, 20.3% (7,963) ranged from 1,000 to 2,000 bp, and the remaining 12.4% (4,880) were longer than 2,000 bp (Table 1). These unigenes formed a potential pool for identification of genes and functional molecular markers in colored calla lily
This study was an attempt to present the transcriptome of colored calla lily using Illumina next-generation sequencing and de novo assembly
Summary
Zantedeschia species, commonly known as calla lily or arum lily, belong to the genus Zantedeschia in the family Araceae. These plants are native to central and southern Africa and generally grow in marshy places, on grassy slopes, and even at forest margins. Z. aethiopica, called white calla lily, is characterized by a pure white spathe and leaves that do not die down in the winter. The species or hybrids of section Aestivae, called colored calla lily, are characterized by a variety of spathe colors and have leaves that die down in the winter. A new species, Z. odorata Perry., that is dormant in the summer and has a white spathe that can produce an invariably delicate freesia-like scent, was classified into section Zantedeschia. There are a number of post-fertilization incompatibility barriers between the species in section Zantedeschia and section Aestivae, including endosperm degeneration, abnormal embryo development and arrested plastid development (Yao, Cohen & Rowl, 1994; Yao, Cohen & Rowland, 1995)
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