Integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analysis reveal new insights into stone cell formation in Korla pear

Abstract

Background Korla fragrant pear(P•sinkiangensis Yü)is a famous local variety of Xinjiang China. One difficulty is the high stone cell content of these pears, which causes the formation of rough skins on the fruit. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms of stone cell formation, parallel analyses of the transcriptome and proteome was performed to identify important regulators and pathways involved in stone cell formation.Results Fruit samples were collected at three important time points depending on the stages of stone cell formation (20, 50 and 80 days after flowering). A total of 24268 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 1011 differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) were identified from all the time points. Function analysis of the differential genes/proteins revealed that a set of candidates was associated with stone cell formation. These candidates mainly enriched in pathways involved in lignin biosynthesis, cellulose and xylan biosynthesis, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) metabolic process, Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and cell death. We mined a total of 253 DEGs, and 100 DAPs, 63 of which were significantly changed at both the transcript and protein levels during fruit development.Conclusions Our findings reveal that some intriguing genes/proteins were previously unrecognized related with the sclereid formation, which provided new insights into molecular processes regulating sclereid accumulation in pear pulp.