Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Key Seed-Development Genes in Common Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)

Hongyou Li,Chenggang Liang,Qijiao Chen,Liwei Zhu,Xiaona Zhang,Fang Cai,Jiao Deng,Qingfu Chen,Yan Wang,Juan Huang,Qiuyu Lv

doi:10.3390/ijms20174303

Abstract

Seed development is an essential and complex process, which is involved in seed size change and various nutrients accumulation, and determines crop yield and quality. Common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) is a widely cultivated minor crop with excellent economic and nutritional value in temperate zones. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of seed development in common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum). In this study, we performed RNA-Seq to investigate the transcriptional dynamics and identify the key genes involved in common buckwheat seed development at three different developmental stages. A total of 4619 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Based on the results of Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG analysis of DEGs, many key genes involved in the seed development, including the Ca2+ signal transduction pathway, the hormone signal transduction pathways, transcription factors (TFs), and starch biosynthesis-related genes, were identified. More importantly, 18 DEGs were identified as the key candidate genes for seed size through homologous query using the known seed size-related genes from different seed plants. Furthermore, 15 DEGs from these identified as the key genes of seed development were selected to confirm the validity of the data by using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and the results show high consistency with the RNA-Seq results. Taken together, our results revealed the underlying molecular mechanisms of common buckwheat seed development and could provide valuable information for further studies, especially for common buckwheat seed improvement.

Highlights

Seed or grain development is one of the most crucial processes in plant development
An in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms of seed development is crucial in improving seed yield and quality of crop plants
Many genes that contribute to seed development have been identified and functionally verified, and molecular pathways have been deciphered in the model plants Arabidopsis and rice [4,5,6,7,8,9]

Summary

Introduction

Seed or grain development is one of the most crucial processes in plant development. It determines the successful racial continuation of seed plants, and affects the final seed yield and seed quality [1,2]. In the last few years, investigations of the molecular mechanisms of seed development have been undertaken in some crop plants such as maize [10,11], wheat [12,13], soybean [14,15,16], barley [4], Tartary buckwheat [17,18], chickpea [19], and Brassica napus [20,21] by transcriptome analysis These studies have identified large numbers of related regulatory and functional genes, and provided a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of seed development

Methods

Results

Conclusion