title: Identification of low temperature stress regulated transcript sequences and gene families in Italian cypress.
abstract: Cold acclimation is a complex transcriptionally controlled process regulated by many different genes and genic-interactions in plants. The northward spreading of woody species is mainly limited by winter harshness. To increase our knowledge about the biological processes underlying cold acclimation, plants evolved in warmer climates can serve as models. In this work, a Suppression Subtractive Hybridization approach using PCR-select was used to isolate Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens L.) transcript sequences putatively expressed under low temperature stress. After assessing the reliability of the subtractive step, a total of 388 clones were selected and sequenced. Following sequence assembly and removal of the redundant cDNAs, 156 unique transcripts were identified and annotated in order to assign them a putative functional class. Most of the identified transcripts were functionally classified pertaining to stress in cellular and chloroplast membranes, which are previously known to be severely damaged by cold treatment. Among the identified functional gene families, the extensively represented ones were dehydrins, early light-inducible proteins, senescence-associated genes and oleosins. The last three gene families were further selected for phylogenetic analysis, with the corresponding protein sequences across the complete genomes of the model plants Populus trichocarpa, Vitis vinifera, Physcomitrella patens, and Arabidopsis thaliana. The relationship with the ortholog sequences coming from these species and their further implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM), Via E. Mach 1, 38010, San Michele all'Adige, Trento, Italy, nicola.laporta@fmach.it.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: La Porta
authors.forename: Gaurav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sablok
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Emilliani
authors.forename: Ari M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hietala
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giovannelli
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fontana
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Potenza
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baldi
mesh_terms: D003080:Cold Temperature; D029781:Cupressus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis*; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000032:analysis*; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018749:RNA, Plant