title: De Novo Assembly and Comparative Transcriptome Analyses of Red and Green Morphs of Sweet Basil Grown in Full Sunlight.
abstract: Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum), one of the most popular cultivated herbs worldwide, displays a number of varieties differing in several characteristics, such as the color of the leaves. The development of a reference transcriptome for sweet basil, and the analysis of differentially expressed genes in acyanic and cyanic cultivars exposed to natural sunlight irradiance, has interest from horticultural and biological point of views. There is still great uncertainty about the significance of anthocyanins in photoprotection, and how green and red morphs may perform when exposed to photo-inhibitory light, a condition plants face on daily and seasonal basis. We sequenced the leaf transcriptome of the green-leaved Tigullio (TIG) and the purple-leaved Red Rubin (RR) exposed to full sunlight over a four-week experimental period. We assembled and annotated 111,007 transcripts. A total of 5,468 and 5,969 potential SSRs were identified in TIG and RR, respectively, out of which 66 were polymorphic in silico. Comparative analysis of the two transcriptomes showed 2,372 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) clustered in 222 enriched Gene ontology terms. Green and red basil mostly differed for transcripts abundance of genes involved in secondary metabolism. While the biosynthesis of waxes was up-regulated in red basil, the biosynthesis of flavonols and carotenoids was up-regulated in green basil. Data from our study provides a comprehensive transcriptome survey, gene sequence resources and microsatellites that can be used for further investigations in sweet basil. The analysis of DEGs and their functional classification also offers new insights on the functional role of anthocyanins in photoprotection.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, The National Research Council of Italy, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torre
authors.affiliation: Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, The National Research Council of Italy, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tattini
authors.affiliation: Trees and Timber Institute, Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, The National Research Council of Italy, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.|Department of Agri-Food Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brunetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guidi
authors.affiliation: Department of Agri-Food Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gori
authors.affiliation: Department of Agri-Food Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marzano
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Landi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, The National Research Council of Italy, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sebastiani
mesh_terms: D000872:Anthocyanins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000096:biosynthesis; D003116:Color; D044948:Flavonols / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D063990:Gene Ontology; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D018649:Ocimum basilicum / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000235:genetics*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D064210:Secondary Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D013472:Sunlight; D059467:Transcriptome; D014885:Waxes / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000872:Anthocyanins; D044948:Flavonols; D010940:Plant Proteins; D014885:Waxes; D002338:Carotenoids