Morphological Characterization and Gene Expression Profiling during Bud Development in a Tropical Perennial, Litchi chinensis Sonn.

Abstract

Tropical evergreen perennials undergo recurrent flush growth, and their terminal buds alternate between growth and dormancy. In sharp contrast to the intensive studies on bud development in temperate deciduous trees, there is little information about bud development regulation in tropical trees. In this study, litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) was used as a model tropical perennial for morphological characterization and transcriptomic analysis of bud development. Litchi buds are naked with apical meristem embraced by rudimentary leaves, which are brown at dormant stage (Stage I). They swell and turn greenish as buds break (Stage II), and as growth accelerates, the rudimentary leaves elongate and open exposing the inner leaf primodia. With the outgrowth of the needle-like leaflets, bud growth reaches a maximum (Stage III). When leaflets expand, bud growth cease with the abortion of the rudimentary leaves at upper positions (Stage IV). Then buds turn brown and reenter dormant status. Budbreak occurs again when new leaves become hard green. Buds at four stages (Stage I to IV) were collected for respiration measurements and in-depth RNA sequencing. Respiration rate was the lowest at Stage I and highest at Stage II, decreasing toward growth cessation. RNA sequencing obtained over 5 Gb data from each of the bud samples and de novo assembly generated a total of 59,999 unigenes, 40,119 of which were annotated. Pair-wise comparison of gene expression between stages, gene profiling across stages, GO/KEGG enrichment analysis, and the expression patterns of 17 major genes highlighted by principal component (PC) analysis displayed significant changes in stress resistance, hormone signal pathways, circadian rhythm, photosynthesis, cell division, carbohydrate metabolism, programmed cell death during bud development, which might be under epigenetic control involving chromatin methylation. The qPCR results of 8 selected unigenes with high PC scores agreed with the RPKM values obtained from RNA-seq. Three Short Vegetative Phase (SVP) genes, namely LcSVP1, LcSVP2, and LcSVP3 displayed different expression patterns, suggesting their differential roles in bud development regulation. The study brought an understanding about biological processes associated with the phase transitions, molecular regulation of bud development, as well as cyclic bud growth as a strategy to survive tropical conditions.

Transcriptome analysis of floral bud development and function analysis of a novel CO gene in Paeonia × lemoinei ‘High Noon’

“…2 ). These findings were consistent with the analyses in the floral bud development of Litchi chinensis 48 . The expression pattern analyses and KEGG pathway enrichment of DEG profiles gave us a much clearer understanding of the regulatory mechanism of floral development (Fig.…”

Comparative transcriptome analysis provides insight into regulation pathways and temporal and spatial expression characteristics of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) dormant buds in different nodes

“…Recently, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) technology has been widely applied in pear [ 10 , 11 ], grapevine [ 1 , 12 , 13 ], peach [ 14 ], Japanese apricot [ 15 ], sweet cherry [ 16 , 17 ], kiwifruit [ 18 ], and litchi [ 19 ]. In addition, the wide application of proteomics technologies, such as isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) and tandem mass tags (TMT) [ 20 – 22 ], has achieved significant progress in dormancy regulative network research at the protein level.…”

Identification of Chilling Accumulation-Associated Genes for Litchi Flowering by Transcriptome-Based Genome-Wide Association Studies

“… Hieke et al (2002) pointed out that the dormancy in litchi buds is not paradormancy or ecodormancy. It may be the endodormancy, and it is not induced or released by environmental cues but a purely endogenous process ( Zhang et al, 2016 ). It might be that the chilling accumulation mainly induced the floral signals in leaves.…”