Transcriptome Analysis of Young Ovaries Reveals Candidate Genes Involved in Gamete Formation in Lantana camara.

Zhanao Deng,Ze Peng,Krishna Bhattarai,Saroj Parajuli,Zhe Cao

doi:10.3390/plants8080263

Zhanao Deng, Ze Peng + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8080263

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Abstract

Lantana (Lantana camara L., Verbenaceae) is an important ornamental crop, yet can be a highly invasive species. The formation of unreduced female gametes (UFGs) is a major factor contributing to its invasiveness and has severely hindered the development of sterile cultivars. To enrich the genomic resources and gain insight into the genetic mechanisms of UFG formation in lantana, we investigated the transcriptomes of young ovaries of two lantana genotypes, GDGHOP-36 (GGO), producing 100% UFGs, and a cultivar Landmark White Lantana (LWL), not producing UFGs. The de novo transcriptome assembly resulted in a total of 90,641 unique transcript sequences with an N50 of 1692 bp, among which, 29,383 sequences contained full-length coding sequences (CDS). There were 214 transcripts associated with the biological processes of gamete production and 10 gene families orthologous to genes known to control unreduced gamete production in Arabidopsis. We identified 925 transcription factor (TF)-encoding sequences, 91 nucleotide-binding site (NBS)-containing genes, and gene families related to drought/salt tolerance and allelopathy. These genomic resources and candidate genes involved in gamete formation will be valuable for developing new tools to control the invasiveness in L. camara, protect native lantana species, and understand the formation of unreduced gametes in plants.

Highlights

Lantana (Lantana camara L., Verbenaceae) is a popular ornamental plant, especially in the subtropical and tropical regions of the world
The identification of disease resistance genes and orthologous gene families associated with stress tolerance and allelopathy would facilitate understanding the special characteristics of lantana and provide a genomic resource for plant breeding
This study investigated the transcriptomes of young ovaries of two lantana genotypes, one forming normal reduced gametes and the other forming unreduced female gametes (UFGs)

Summary

Introduction

Lantana (Lantana camara L., Verbenaceae) is a popular ornamental plant, especially in the subtropical and tropical regions of the world. A survey of the nursery industry in Florida, United States of America (U.S.A.), revealed that hundreds of nurseries and greenhouse growers produced L. camara, and the sales of L. camara plants contributed more than $40 million a year to the state’s economy [1]. The popularity of L. camara is due to its ability to bloom year-round, attract many species of butterflies, tolerate harsh environmental conditions, thrive with low maintenance requirements, and propagate [2,3]. Most of the lantana cultivars grown by the ornamental plant industry belong to the species L. camara. Lantana camara originated in West Indies and was introduced to the tropical regions of the world by 1900 [5,6]. L. camara is found in more than 60 countries under hundreds of cultivar names [7]

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