title: Analysis of the Citrullus colocynthis transcriptome during water deficit stress.
abstract: Citrullus colocynthis is a very drought tolerant species, closely related to watermelon (C. lanatus var. lanatus), an economically important cucurbit crop. Drought is a threat to plant growth and development, and the discovery of drought inducible genes with various functions is of great importance. We used high throughput mRNA Illumina sequencing technology and bioinformatic strategies to analyze the C. colocynthis leaf transcriptome under drought treatment. Leaf samples at four different time points (0, 24, 36, or 48 hours of withholding water) were used for RNA extraction and Illumina sequencing. qRT-PCR of several drought responsive genes was performed to confirm the accuracy of RNA sequencing. Leaf transcriptome analysis provided the first glimpse of the drought responsive transcriptome of this unique cucurbit species. A total of 5038 full-length cDNAs were detected, with 2545 genes showing significant changes during drought stress. Principle component analysis indicated that drought was the major contributing factor regulating transcriptome changes. Up regulation of many transcription factors, stress signaling factors, detoxification genes, and genes involved in phytohormone signaling and citrulline metabolism occurred under the water deficit conditions. The C. colocynthis transcriptome data highlight the activation of a large set of drought related genes in this species, thus providing a valuable resource for future functional analysis of candidate genes in defense of drought stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Horticulture, Auburn University, Alabama, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zhuoyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama, United States of America.
authors.forename: Hongtao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama, United States of America.
authors.forename: Leslie R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Goertzen
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama, United States of America.
authors.forename: J Scott
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: McElroy
authors.affiliation: Department of Horticulture, Auburn University, Alabama, United States of America.
authors.forename: Fenny
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dane
mesh_terms: D065986:Citrullus colocynthis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D019295:Computational Biology; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D003681:Dehydration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000502:physiology*; D063990:Gene Ontology; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012333:RNA, Messenger