title: Bovine serum albumin in saliva mediates grazing response in Leymus chinensis revealed by RNA sequencing.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sheepgrass (Leymus chinensis) is an important perennial forage grass across the Eurasian Steppe and is adaptable to various environmental conditions, but little is known about its molecular mechanism responding to grazing and BSA deposition. Because it has a large genome, RNA sequencing is expensive and impractical except for the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, NGS technology was employed to characterize de novo the transcriptome of sheepgrass after defoliation and grazing treatments and to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) responding to grazing and BSA deposition. We assembled more than 47 M high-quality reads into 120,426 contigs from seven sequenced libraries. Based on the assembled transcriptome, we detected 2,002 DEGs responding to BSA deposition during grazing. Enrichment analysis of Gene ontology (GO), EuKaryotic Orthologous Groups (KOG) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways revealed that the effects of grazing and BSA deposition involved more apoptosis and cell oxidative changes compared to defoliation. Analysis of DNA fragments, cell oxidative factors and the lengths of leaf scars after grazing provided physiological and morphological evidence that BSA deposition during grazing alters the oxidative and apoptotic status of cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This research greatly enriches sheepgrass transcriptome resources and grazing-stress-related genes, helping us to better understand the molecular mechanism of grazing in sheepgrass. The grazing-stress-related genes and pathways will be a valuable resource for further gene-phenotype studies.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xianjun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Lexin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China. sychen@ibcas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Shuangyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Liqin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Gongshe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D060434:Herbivory; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D006109:Poaceae / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine