Sequenced Plant Genomes Research Articles

Computational analysis of a cys-loop ligand gated ion channel from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Plants possess several neurotransmitters with well-known physiological roles. Currently only receptors for glutamate were reported to be found in plants, while receptors for acetylcholine, serotonin and GABA have not yet been reported. In animals, these neurotransmitters act via one class of ligand binding ion channels called Cys-loop receptors which play a major role in fast synaptic transmission. They show the presence of two domains namely Neurotransmitter-gated ion-channel ligand-binding domain (Pfam: PF02931) and Neurotransmitter-gated transmembrane domain (Pfam: PF02932). Cys-loop receptors are also known in prokaryotes. No cys-loop receptor has been characterized from plants yet. In this study, the Ensembl plants database was searched for proteins with these two domains in the sequenced plant genomes, what resulted in only one protein (LIC1) from the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. BLAST and profile HMM searches against the pdb structure database showed that this protein is related to animal and prokaryotic cys-loop receptors, although the cysteine residues characteristic of the cys-loop are absent. Physico-chemical and sequence analysis indicate that LIC1 is an anionic receptor. A model of this protein was generated using homology modeling based on a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor of Torpedo marmorata. The characteristic extracellular domain (ECD) and transmembrane domain (TMD) are well structured but the intercellular region is poorly formed. This is the first report on a detailed characterization of a cys-loop receptor from the plant kingdom.

Genome-wide analysis of potential cross-reactive endogenous allergens in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The proteins in the food are the source of common allergic components to certain patients. Current lists of plant endogenous allergens were based on the medical/clinical reports as well as laboratory results. Plant genome sequences made it possible to predict and characterize the genome-wide of putative endogenous allergens in rice (Oryza sativa L.). In this work, we identified and characterized 122 candidate rice allergens including the 22 allergens in present databases. Conserved domain analysis also revealed 37 domains among rice allergens including one novel domain (histidine kinase-, DNA gyrase B-, and HSP90-like ATPase, PF13589) adding to the allergen protein database. Phylogenetic analysis of the allergens revealed the diversity among the Prolamin superfamily and DnaK protein family, respectively. Additionally, some allergens proteins clustered on the rice chromosome might suggest the molecular function during the evolution.

Investigation of terpene diversification across multiple sequenced plant genomes

Plants produce an array of specialized metabolites, including chemicals that are important as medicines, flavors, fragrances, pigments and insecticides. The vast majority of this metabolic diversity is untapped. Here we take a systematic approach toward dissecting genetic components of plant specialized metabolism. Focusing on the terpenes, the largest class of plant natural products, we investigate the basis of terpene diversity through analysis of multiple sequenced plant genomes. The primary drivers of terpene diversification are terpenoid synthase (TS) "signature" enzymes (which generate scaffold diversity), and cytochromes P450 (CYPs), which modify and further diversify these scaffolds, so paving the way for further downstream modifications. Our systematic search of sequenced plant genomes for all TS and CYP genes reveals that distinct TS/CYP gene pairs are found together far more commonly than would be expected by chance, and that certain TS/CYP pairings predominate, providing signals for key events that are likely to have shaped terpene diversity. We recover TS/CYP gene pairs for previously characterized terpene metabolic gene clusters and demonstrate new functional pairing of TSs and CYPs within previously uncharacterized clusters. Unexpectedly, we find evidence for different mechanisms of pathway assembly in eudicots and monocots; in the former, microsyntenic blocks of TS/CYP gene pairs duplicate and provide templates for the evolution of new pathways, whereas in the latter, new pathways arise by mixing and matching of individual TS and CYP genes through dynamic genome rearrangements. This is, to our knowledge, the first documented observation of the unique pattern of TS and CYP assembly in eudicots and monocots.

LAILAPS: the plant science search engine.

With the number of sequenced plant genomes growing, the number of predicted genes and functional annotations is also increasing. The association between genes and phenotypic traits is currently of great interest. Unfortunately, the information available today is widely scattered over a number of different databases. Information retrieval (IR) has become an all-encompassing bioinformatics methodology for extracting knowledge from complex, heterogeneous and distributed databases, and therefore can be a useful tool for obtaining a comprehensive view of plant genomics, from genes to traits. Here we describe LAILAPS (http://lailaps.ipk-gatersleben.de), an IR system designed to link plant genomic data in the context of phenotypic attributes for a detailed forward genetic research. LAILAPS comprises around 65 million indexed documents, encompassing >13 major life science databases with around 80 million links to plant genomic resources. The LAILAPS search engine allows fuzzy querying for candidate genes linked to specific traits over a loosely integrated system of indexed and interlinked genome databases. Query assistance and an evidence-based annotation system enable time-efficient and comprehensive information retrieval. An artificial neural network incorporating user feedback and behavior tracking allows relevance sorting of results. We fully describe LAILAPS’s functionality and capabilities by comparing this system’s performance with other widely used systems and by reporting both a validation in maize and a knowledge discovery use-case focusing on candidate genes in barley.

Genome evolution in maize: from genomes back to genes.

Maize occupies dual roles as both (a) one of the big-three grain species (along with rice and wheat) responsible for providing more than half of the calories consumed around the world, and (b) a model system for plant genetics and cytogenetics dating back to the origin of the field of genetics in the early twentieth century. The long history of genetic investigation in this species combined with modern genomic and quantitative genetic data has provided particular insight into the characteristics of genes linked to phenotypes and how these genes differ from many other sequences in plant genomes that are not easily distinguishable based on molecular data alone. These recent results suggest that the number of genes in plants that make significant contributions to phenotype may be lower than the number of genes defined by current molecular criteria, and also indicate that syntenic conservation has been underemphasized as a marker for gene function.

Potential applications of glucosyltransferases in terpene glucoside production: impacts on the use of aroma and fragrance.

The detection of glucoconjugated forms of monoterpene alcohols in rose petals in the late 1960s opened the new field of nonvolatile aroma precursors in flavor research. It is now well established that odorless glycosides represent a significant pool of aroma precursors in plants where they act as preformed but inactivated defense or attractive chemicals. Technical improvements in the separation and identification of plant secondary metabolites have provided a multitude of chemical structures, but functional characterization of glycosyltransferases that catalyze their formation lags behind. As technical efforts and costs for DNA sequencing dramatically dropped during the last decade, the number of plant genome sequences increased significantly, thus providing opportunities to functionally characterize the glycosyltransferase gene families in plants. These studies yielded the first glycosyltransferase genes that encode efficient biocatalysts for the production of monoterpene glucosides. They have applications in the food, feed, chemical, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries as slow release aroma chemicals.

Bayesian phylogeny of sucrose transporters: ancient origins, differential expansion and convergent evolution in monocots and dicots.

Sucrose transporters (SUTs) are essential for the export and efficient movement of sucrose from source leaves to sink organs in plants. The angiosperm SUT family was previously classified into three or four distinct groups, Types I, II (subgroup IIB), and III, with dicot-specific Type I and monocot-specific Type IIB functioning in phloem loading. To shed light on the underlying drivers of SUT evolution, Bayesian phylogenetic inference was undertaken using 41 sequenced plant genomes, including seven basal lineages at key evolutionary junctures. Our analysis supports four phylogenetically and structurally distinct SUT subfamilies, originating from two ancient groups (AG1 and AG2) that diverged early during terrestrial colonization. In both AG1 and AG2, multiple intron acquisition events in the progenitor vascular plant established the gene structures of modern SUTs. Tonoplastic Type III and plasmalemmal Type II represent evolutionarily conserved descendants of AG1 and AG2, respectively. Type I and Type IIB were previously thought to evolve after the dicot-monocot split. We show, however, that divergence of Type I from Type III SUT predated basal angiosperms, likely associated with evolution of vascular cambium and phloem transport. Type I SUT was subsequently lost in monocots along with vascular cambium, and independent evolution of Type IIB coincided with modified monocot vasculature. Both Type I and Type IIB underwent lineage-specific expansion. In multiple unrelated taxa, the newly-derived SUTs exhibit biased expression in reproductive tissues, suggesting a functional link between phloem loading and reproductive fitness. Convergent evolution of Type I and Type IIB for SUT function in phloem loading and reproductive organs supports the idea that differential vascular development in dicots and monocots is a strong driver for SUT family evolution in angiosperms.

A novel approach for multi-domain and multi-gene family identification provides insights into evolutionary dynamics of disease resistance genes in core eudicot plants.

BackgroundRecent advances in DNA sequencing techniques resulted in more than forty sequenced plant genomes representing a diverse set of taxa of agricultural, energy, medicinal and ecological importance. However, gene family curation is often only inferred from DNA sequence homology and lacks insights into evolutionary processes contributing to gene family dynamics. In a comparative genomics framework, we integrated multiple lines of evidence provided by gene synteny, sequence homology and protein-based Hidden Markov Modelling to extract homologous super-clusters composed of multi-domain resistance (R)-proteins of the NB-LRR type (for NUCLEOTIDE BINDING/LEUCINE-RICH REPEATS), that are involved in plant innate immunity.ResultsTo assess the diversity of R-proteins within and between species, we screened twelve eudicot plant genomes including six major crops and found a total of 2,363 NB-LRR genes. Our curated R-proteins set shows a 50% average for tandem duplicates and a 22% fraction of gene copies retained from ancient polyploidy events (ohnologs). We provide evidence for strong positive selection and show significant differences in molecular evolution rates (Ka/Ks-ratio) among tandem- (mean = 1.59), ohnolog (mean = 1.36) and singleton (mean = 1.22) R-gene duplicates. To foster the process of gene-edited plant breeding, we report species-specific presence/absence of all 140 NB-LRR genes present in the model plant Arabidopsis and describe four distinct clusters of NB-LRR “gatekeeper” loci sharing syntenic orthologs across all analyzed genomes.ConclusionBy curating a near-complete set of multi-domain R-protein clusters in an eudicot-wide scale, our analysis offers significant insight into evolutionary dynamics underlying diversification of the plant innate immune system. Furthermore, our methods provide a blueprint for future efforts to identify and more rapidly clone functional NB-LRR genes from any plant species.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-966) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The diversification and activity of hAT transposons in Musa genomes.

Sequencing of plant genomes often identified the hAT superfamily as the largest group of DNA transposons. Nevertheless, detailed information on the diversity, abundance and chromosomal localization of plant hAT families are rare. By in silico analyses of the reference genome assembly and bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) sequences, respectively, we performed the classification and molecular characterization of hAT transposon families in Musa acuminata. Musa hAT transposons are organized in three families designatedMuhAT I, MuhAT II and MuhAT III. In total, 70 complete autonomous elements of the MuhAT I and MuhAT II families were detected, while no autonomous MuhAT III transposons were found. Based on the terminal inverted repeat (TIR)-specific sequence information of the autonomous transposons, 1722 MuhAT I- and MuhAT II-specific miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MuhMITEs) were identified. Autonomous MuhAT I and MuhAT II elements areonly moderately abundant in the sections of the genus Musa, while the corresponding MITEs exhibit an amplification in Musa genomes. By fluorescent in situ hybridization(FISH), autonomous MuhAT transposons as well as MuhMITEs were localized in subtelomeric, most likely gene-rich regions of M. acuminata chromosomes. A comparison of homoeologous regions of M. acuminata and Musa balbisiana BACs revealed the species-specific mobility of MuhMITEs. In particular, the activity of MuhMITEs II showing transduplications of genomic sequences might indicate the presence of active MuhAT transposons, thus suggesting a potential role of MuhMITEs as modulators of genome evolution of Musa.

Recent advances in ancient DNA research and their implications for archaeobotany

The scope and ambition of biomolecular archaeology is undergoing rapid change due to the development of new ‘next generation’ sequencing (NGS) methods for analysis of ancient DNA in archaeological specimens. These methods have not yet been applied extensively to archaeobotanical material but their utility has been demonstrated with desiccated, waterlogged and charred remains. The future use of NGS is likely to open up new areas of investigation that have been difficult or impossible with the traditional approach to aDNA sequencing. Species identification should become more routine with archaeobotanical explants, not just with charred grain but with most if not all species likely to be encountered in an archaeobotanical setting. Distinctions between different subspecies groups such as cereal landraces will also be possible in the near future. Phenotypic characterization, in which aDNA sequencing is used to infer the biological characteristics of an archaeological specimen, will become possible, improving our understanding of traits such as flowering behaviour of cereals, and when combined with studies of preserved RNA and protein will enable complex phenotypes such as environmental tolerance and nutritional quality to be assessed. The sequencing of entire ancient plant genomes is also likely to have significant impact. As with past studies of ancient plant DNA, realization of the new potential provided by NGS will require productive collaboration between archaeologists and geneticists within the archaeobotanical research community.

Inter-SINE Amplified Polymorphism (ISAP) for rapid and robust plant genotyping.

The unambiguous differentiation of crop genotypes is often laborious or expensive. A rapid, robust, and cost-efficient marker system is required for routine genotyping in plant breeding and marker-assisted selection. We describe the Inter-SINE Amplified Polymorphism (ISAP) system that is based on standard molecular methods resulting in genotype-specific fingerprints at high resolution. These markers are derived from Short Interspersed Nuclear Elements (SINEs) which are dispersed repetitive sequences present in most if not all plant genomes and can be efficiently extracted from plant genome sequences. The ISAP method was developed on potato as model plant but is also transferable to other plant species.

Unexpected roles for ancient proteins: flavone 8-hydroxylase in sweet basil trichomes is a Rieske-type, PAO-family oxygenase.

Most elucidated hydroxylations in plant secondary metabolism are catalyzed by oxoglutarate- or cytochrome P450-dependent oxygenases. Numerous hydroxylations still evade clarification, suggesting that they might be performed by alternative enzyme types. Here, we report the identification of the flavone 8-hydroxylase (F8H) in sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) trichomes as a Rieske-type oxygenase. Several features of the F8H activity in trichome protein extracts helped to differentiate it from a cytochrome P450-catalyzed reaction and identify candidate genes in the basil trichome EST database. The encoded ObF8H proteins share approximately 50% identity with Rieske-type protochlorophyllide a oxygenases (PTC52) from higher plants. Homology cloning and DNA blotting revealed the presence of several PTC52-like genes in the basil genome. The transcripts of the candidate gene designated ObF8H-1 are strongly enriched in trichomes compared to whole young leaves, indicating trichome-specific expression. The full-length ObF8H-1 protein possesses a predicted N-terminal transit peptide, which directs green fluorescent protein at least in part to chloroplasts. The F8H activity in crude trichome protein extracts correlates well with the abundance of ObF8H peptides. The purified recombinant ObF8H-1 displays high affinity for salvigenin and is inactive with other tested flavones except cirsimaritin, which is 8-hydroxylated with less than 0.2% relative activity. The efficiency of in vivo 8-hydroxylation by engineered yeast was improved by manipulation of protein subcellular targeting. blast searches showed that occurrence of several PTC52-like genes is rather common in sequenced plant genomes. The discovery of ObF8H suggests that Rieske-type oxygenases may represent overlooked candidate catalysts for oxygenations in specialized plant metabolism.

The use of semantic similarity measures for optimally integrating heterogeneous Gene Ontology data from large scale annotation pipelines.

With the advancement of new high throughput sequencing technologies, there has been an increase in the number of genome sequencing projects worldwide, which has yielded complete genome sequences of human, animals and plants. Subsequently, several labs have focused on genome annotation, consisting of assigning functions to gene products, mostly using Gene Ontology (GO) terms. As a consequence, there is an increased heterogeneity in annotations across genomes due to different approaches used by different pipelines to infer these annotations and also due to the nature of the GO structure itself. This makes a curator's task difficult, even if they adhere to the established guidelines for assessing these protein annotations. Here we develop a genome-scale approach for integrating GO annotations from different pipelines using semantic similarity measures. We used this approach to identify inconsistencies and similarities in functional annotations between orthologs of human and Drosophila melanogaster, to assess the quality of GO annotations derived from InterPro2GO mappings compared to manually annotated GO annotations for the Drosophila melanogaster proteome from a FlyBase dataset and human, and to filter GO annotation data for these proteomes. Results obtained indicate that an efficient integration of GO annotations eliminates redundancy up to 27.08 and 22.32% in the Drosophila melanogaster and human GO annotation datasets, respectively. Furthermore, we identified lack of and missing annotations for some orthologs, and annotation mismatches between InterPro2GO and manual pipelines in these two proteomes, thus requiring further curation. This simplifies and facilitates tasks of curators in assessing protein annotations, reduces redundancy and eliminates inconsistencies in large annotation datasets for ease of comparative functional genomics.

Tangled up in two: a burst of genome duplications at the end of the Cretaceous and the consequences for plant evolution

Genome sequencing has demonstrated that besides frequent small-scale duplications, large-scale duplication events such as whole genome duplications (WGDs) are found on many branches of the evolutionary tree of life. Especially in the plant lineage, there is evidence for recurrent WGDs, and the ancestor of all angiosperms was in fact most likely a polyploid species. The number of WGDs found in sequenced plant genomes allows us to investigate questions about the roles of WGDs that were hitherto impossible to address. An intriguing observation is that many plant WGDs seem associated with periods of increased environmental stress and/or fluctuations, a trend that is evident for both present-day polyploids and palaeopolyploids formed around the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) extinction at 66 Ma. Here, we revisit the WGDs in plants that mark the K–Pg boundary, and discuss some specific examples of biological innovations and/or diversifications that may be linked to these WGDs. We review evidence for the processes that could have contributed to increased polyploid establishment at the K–Pg boundary, and discuss the implications on subsequent plant evolution in the Cenozoic.

High-throughput comparison, functional annotation, and metabolic modeling of plant genomes using the PlantSEED resource.

The increasing number of sequenced plant genomes is placing new demands on the methods applied to analyze, annotate, and model these genomes. Today's annotation pipelines result in inconsistent gene assignments that complicate comparative analyses and prevent efficient construction of metabolic models. To overcome these problems, we have developed the PlantSEED, an integrated, metabolism-centric database to support subsystems-based annotation and metabolic model reconstruction for plant genomes. PlantSEED combines SEED subsystems technology, first developed for microbial genomes, with refined protein families and biochemical data to assign fully consistent functional annotations to orthologous genes, particularly those encoding primary metabolic pathways. Seamless integration with its parent, the prokaryotic SEED database, makes PlantSEED a unique environment for cross-kingdom comparative analysis of plant and bacterial genomes. The consistent annotations imposed by PlantSEED permit rapid reconstruction and modeling of primary metabolism for all plant genomes in the database. This feature opens the unique possibility of model-based assessment of the completeness and accuracy of gene annotation and thus allows computational identification of genes and pathways that are restricted to certain genomes or need better curation. We demonstrate the PlantSEED system by producing consistent annotations for 10 reference genomes. We also produce a functioning metabolic model for each genome, gapfilling to identify missing annotations and proposing gene candidates for missing annotations. Models are built around an extended biomass composition representing the most comprehensive published to date. To our knowledge, our models are the first to be published for seven of the genomes analyzed.

Development of a Cucumis sativus TILLinG platform for forward and reverse genetics.

BackgroundCucumber (Cucumis sativus) belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family that includes more than 800 species. The cucumber genome has been recently sequenced and annotated. Transcriptomics and genome sequencing of many plant genomes are providing information on candidate genes potentially related to agronomically important traits. To accelerate functional characterization of these genes in cucumber we have generated an EMS mutant population that can be used as a TILLinG platform for reverse genetics.Principal FindingsA population of 3,331 M2 mutant seed families was generated using two EMS concentrations (0.5% and 0.75%). Genomic DNA was extracted from M2 families and eight-fold pooled for mutation detection by ENDO1 nuclease. To assess the quality of the mutant collection, we screened for induced mutations in five genes and identified 26 mutations. The average mutation rate was calculated as 1/1147 Kb giving rise to approximately 320 mutations per genome. We focused our characterization on three missense mutations, G33C, S238F and S249F identified in the CsACS2 sex determination gene. Protein modeling and crystallography studies predicted that mutation at G33 may affect the protein function, whereas mutations at S238 and S249 may not impair the protein function. As predicted, detailed phenotypic evaluation showed that the S238F and the S249F mutant lines had no sexual phenotype. In contrast, plants homozygous for the G33C mutation showed a complete sexual transition from monoecy to andromonoecy. This result demonstrates that TILLinG is a valuable tool for functional validation of gene function in crops recalcitrant to transgenic transformation.ConclusionsWe have developed a cucumber mutant population that can be used as an efficient reverse genetics tool. The cucumber TILLinG collection as well as the previously described melon TILLinG collection will prove to be a valuable resource for both fundamental research and the identification of agronomically-important genes for crop improvement in cucurbits in general.

Phylogenetic analyses provide the first insights into the evolution of OVATE family proteins in land plants.

The OVATE gene encodes a nuclear-localized regulatory protein belonging to a distinct family of plant-specific proteins known as the OVATE family proteins (OFPs). OVATE was first identified as a key regulator of fruit shape in tomato, with nonsense mutants displaying pear-shaped fruits. However, the role of OFPs in plant development has been poorly characterized. Public databases were searched and a total of 265 putative OVATE protein sequences were identified from 13 sequenced plant genomes that represent the major evolutionary lineages of land plants. A phylogenetic analysis was conducted based on the alignment of the conserved OVATE domain from these 13 selected plant genomes. The expression patterns of tomato SlOFP genes were analysed via quantitative real-time PCR. The pattern of OVATE gene duplication resulting in the expansion of the gene family was determined in arabidopsis, rice and tomato. Genes for OFPs were found to be present in all the sampled land plant genomes, including the early-diverged lineages, mosses and lycophytes. Phylogenetic analysis based on the amino acid sequences of the conserved OVATE domain defined 11 sub-groups of OFPs in angiosperms. Different evolutionary mechanisms are proposed for OVATE family evolution, namely conserved evolution and divergent expansion. Characterization of the AtOFP family in arabidopsis, the OsOFP family in rice and the SlOFP family in tomato provided further details regarding the evolutionary framework and revealed a major contribution of tandem and segmental duplications towards expansion of the OVATE gene family. This first genome-wide survey on OFPs provides new insights into the evolution of the OVATE protein family and establishes a solid base for future functional genomics studies on this important but poorly characterized regulatory protein family in plants.

Tracing the origin and evolution of plant TIR-encoding genes.

Toll-interleukin-1 receptor (TIR)-encoding proteins represent one of the most important families of disease resistance genes in plants. Studies that have explored the functional details of these genes tended to focus on only a few limited groups; the origin and evolutionary history of these genes were therefore unclear. In this study, focusing on the four principal groups of TIR-encoding genes, we conducted an extensive genome-wide survey of 32 fully sequenced plant genomes and Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) from the gymnosperm Pinus taeda and explored the origins and evolution of these genes. Through the identification of the TIR-encoding genes, the analysis of chromosome positions, the identification and analysis of conserved motifs, and sequence alignment and phylogenetic reconstruction, our results showed that the genes of the TIR-X family (TXs) had an earlier origin and a wider distribution than the genes from the other three groups. TIR-encoding genes experienced large-scale gene duplications during evolution. A skeleton motif pattern of the TIR domain was present in all spermatophytes, and the genes with this skeleton pattern exhibited a conserved and independent evolutionary history in all spermatophytes, including monocots, that followed their gymnosperm origin. This study used comparative genomics to explore the origin and evolutionary history of the four main groups of TIR-encoding genes. Additionally, we unraveled the mechanism behind the uneven distribution of TIR-encoding genes in dicots and monocots.

Proteomics and transcriptomics of the BABA-induced resistance response in potato using a novel functional annotation approach.

BackgroundInduced resistance (IR) can be part of a sustainable plant protection strategy against important plant diseases. β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) can induce resistance in a wide range of plants against several types of pathogens, including potato infected with Phytophthora infestans. However, the molecular mechanisms behind this are unclear and seem to be dependent on the system studied. To elucidate the defence responses activated by BABA in potato, a genome-wide transcript microarray analysis in combination with label-free quantitative proteomics analysis of the apoplast secretome were performed two days after treatment of the leaf canopy with BABA at two concentrations, 1 and 10 mM.ResultsOver 5000 transcripts were differentially expressed and over 90 secretome proteins changed in abundance indicating a massive activation of defence mechanisms with 10 mM BABA, the concentration effective against late blight disease. To aid analysis, we present a more comprehensive functional annotation of the microarray probes and gene models by retrieving information from orthologous gene families across 26 sequenced plant genomes. The new annotation provided GO terms to 8616 previously un-annotated probes.ConclusionsBABA at 10 mM affected several processes related to plant hormones and amino acid metabolism. A major accumulation of PR proteins was also evident, and in the mevalonate pathway, genes involved in sterol biosynthesis were down-regulated, whereas several enzymes involved in the sesquiterpene phytoalexin biosynthesis were up-regulated. Interestingly, abscisic acid (ABA) responsive genes were not as clearly regulated by BABA in potato as previously reported in Arabidopsis. Together these findings provide candidates and markers for improved resistance in potato, one of the most important crops in the world.

Advances in identification and validation of plant microRNAs and their target genes

Developments in the field of molecular biology and genetics, such as microarray, gene transfer and discovery of small regulatory RNAs, have led to significant advances in plant biotechnology. Among the small RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) have elicited much interest as key post-transcriptional regulators in eukaryotic gene expression. Advances in genome and transcriptome sequencing of plants have facilitated the generation of a huge wealth of sequence information that can find much use in the discovery of novel miRNAs and their target genes. In this review, we present an overview of the developments in the strategies and methods used to identify and study miRNAs, their target genes and the mechanisms by which these miRNAs interact with their target genes since the discovery of the first miRNA. The approaches discussed include both reverse and forward genetics. We observed that despite the availability of advanced methods, certain limitations ranging from the cost of materials, equipment and personnel to the availability of genome sequences for many plant species present a number of challenges for the development and utilization of modern scientific methods for the elucidation and development of miRNAs in many important plant species.