title: Profiling mRNAs of two Cuscuta species reveals possible candidate transcripts shared by parasitic plants.
abstract: Dodders are among the most important parasitic plants that cause serious yield losses in crop plants. In this report, we sought to unveil the genetic basis of dodder parasitism by profiling the trancriptomes of Cuscuta pentagona and C. suaveolens, two of the most common dodder species using a next-generation RNA sequencing platform. De novo assembly of the sequence reads resulted in more than 46,000 isotigs and contigs (collectively referred to as expressed sequence tags or ESTs) for each species, with more than half of them predicted to encode proteins that share significant sequence similarities with known proteins of non-parasitic plants. Comparing our datasets with transcriptomes of 12 other fully sequenced plant species confirmed a close evolutionary relationship between dodder and tomato. Using a rigorous set of filtering parameters, we were able to identify seven pairs of ESTs that appear to be shared exclusively by parasitic plants, thus providing targets for tailored management approaches. In addition, we also discovered ESTs with sequences similarities to known plant viruses, including cryptic viruses, in the dodder sequence assemblies. Together this study represents the first comprehensive transcriptome profiling of parasitic plants in the Cuscuta genus, and is expected to contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of parasitic plant-host plant interactions.
authors: Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster, Ohio, United States of America ; Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster, Ohio, United States of America.
authors: Linjian
authors: L
authors: Jiang
authors: Asela J
authors: AJ
authors: Wijeratne
authors: Saranga
authors: S
authors: Wijeratne
authors: Martina
authors: M
authors: Fraga
authors: Tea
authors: T
authors: Meulia
authors: Doug
authors: D
authors: Doohan
authors: Zhaohu
authors: Z
authors: Li
authors: Feng
authors: F
authors: Qu
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000469:parasitology*; D034182:Cuscuta / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger