RNA-Seq of TYLCSV C4 transgenic tomato plants
The aim of the project is to analyze the differential expression of genes in C4 transgenic tomato plants compared to wild-type plants, in order to define the molecular basis of the tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses and the characteristic plant morphology of transgenic plants. C4 transgenic plants were obtained following transformation with a construct carrying the tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus (TYLCSV) C4 ORF under the control of the 35S CaMV promoter. Two months after sowing, C4 (T3 generation) and wild-type plants were collected for analysis. Total RNA was extracted from the apical leaves with Rneasy Plant Mini kit (Qiagen, Milan, Italy) and sequenced with Illumina Novaseq 600 (2x150bp). A de novo guided transcriptome assembly with Trinity was performed and differential gene expression was performed with edgeR.