title: Comparative transcriptomics analysis reveals difference of key gene expression between banana and plantain in response to cold stress.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Banana and plantain (Musa spp.) comprise an important part of diets for millions of people around the globe. Low temperature is one of the key environmental stresses which greatly affects the global banana production. To understand the molecular mechanism of the cold-tolerance in plantain we used RNA-Seq based comparative transcriptomics analyses for both cold-sensitive banana and cold-tolerant plantain subjected to the cold stress for 0, 3 and 6 h.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cold-response genes at early stage are identified and grouped in both species by GO analysis. The results show that 10 and 68 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are identified for 3 and 6 h of cold stress respectively in plantain, while 40 and 238 DEGs are identified respectively in banana. GO classification analyses show that the majority of DEGs identified in both banana and plantain belong to 11 categories including regulation of transcription, response to stress signal transduction, etc. A similar profile for 28 DEGs was found in both banana and plantain for 6 h of cold stress, suggesting both share some common adaptation processes in response to cold stress. There are 17 DEGs found uniquely in cold-tolerance plantain, which were involved in signal transduction, abiotic stress, copper ion equilibrium, photosynthesis and photorespiration, sugar stimulation, protein modifications etc. Twelve early responsive genes including ICE1 and MYBS3 were selected and further assessed and confirmed by qPCR in the extended time course experiments (0, 3, 6, 24 and 48 h), which revealed significant expression difference of key genes in response to cold stress, especially ICE1 and MYBS3 between cold-sensitive banana and cold-tolerant plantain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that the cold-tolerance pathway appears selectively activated by regulation of ICE1 and MYBS3 expression in plantain under different stages of cold stress. We conclude that the rapid activation and selective induction of ICE1 and MYBS3 cold tolerance pathways in plantain, along with expression of other cold-specific genes, may be one of the main reasons that plantain has higher cold resistance than banana.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. soyang@hotmail.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. soyang@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Qiao-Song
authors.initials: QS
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. gaojienuonuo@163.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. gaojienuonuo@163.com.|State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China. gaojienuonuo@163.com.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. heweidi89@163.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. heweidi89@163.com.|National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. heweidi89@163.com.
authors.forename: Wei-Di
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. Doutongxin888666@163.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. Doutongxin888666@163.com.|State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China. Doutongxin888666@163.com.
authors.forename: Tong-Xin
authors.initials: TX
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. dinglijie1115@163.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. dinglijie1115@163.com.|State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China. dinglijie1115@163.com.
authors.forename: Li-Jie
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. wujunhuahunan@126.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. wujunhuahunan@126.com.|State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China. wujunhuahunan@126.com.
authors.forename: Jun-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. lichunyu881@163.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. lichunyu881@163.com.
authors.forename: Chun-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China. xpeng@scau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xin-Xiang
authors.initials: XX
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biotechnology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853-2703, USA. sz14@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 80 Dafeng 2nd street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510640, China. yiganjun@vip.163.com.|Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510640, China. yiganjun@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Gan-Jun
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Yi
mesh_terms: D003080:Cold Temperature; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D028521:Musa / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins