Genome-wide analysis of JAZ family genes expression patterns during fig (Ficus carica L.) fruit development and in response to hormone treatment.

BACKGROUND: Jasmonate-ZIM domain (JAZ) repressors negatively regulate signal transduction of jasmonates, which regulate plant development and immunity. However, no comprehensive analysis of the JAZ gene family members has been done in the common fig (Ficus carica L.) during fruit development and hormonal treatment. RESULTS: In this study, 10 non-redundant fig JAZ family genes (FcJAZs) distributed on 7 chromosomes were identified in the fig genome. Phylogenetic and structural analysis showed that FcJAZ genes can be grouped into 5 classes. All the classes contained relatively complete TIFY and Jas domains. Yeast two hybrid (Y2H) results showed that all FcJAZs proteins may interact with the identified transcription factor, FcMYC2. Tissue-specific expression analysis showed that FcJAZs were highly expressed in the female flowers and roots. Expression patterns of FcJAZs during the fruit development were analyzed by RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR. The findings showed that, most FcJAZs were significantly downregulated from stage 3 to 5 in the female flower, whereas downregulation of these genes was observed in the fruit peel from stage 4 to 5. Weighted-gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) showed the expression pattern of FcJAZs was correlated with hormone signal transduction and plant-pathogen interaction. Putative cis-elements analysis of FcJAZs and expression patterns of FcJAZs which respond to hormone treatments revealed that FcJAZs may regulate fig fruit development by modulating the effect of ethylene or gibberellin. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the FcJAZ family members and provides information on FcJAZs contributions and their role in regulating the common fig fruit development.

Ethephon induces coordinated ripening acceleration and divergent coloration responses in fig (Ficus carica L.) flowers and receptacles.

KEY MESSAGE: The regulatory landscape of ethephon-accelerated fig ripening is revealed; flowers and receptacles exhibit opposite responses in anthocyanin accumulation; PG, PL and EXP are suggested key genes in fig softening. Ethephon is used to accelerate fig-fruit ripening for improvement of harvesting efficiency, but the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear. To elucidate the detailed biological mechanism of ethylene-accelerated fig ripening, fruit in phase II (the lag phase on the double sigmoid growth curve) were treated with ethephon, and reached commercial ripeness 6 days earlier than the nontreated controls. Transcriptomes of flowers and the surrounding receptacles-which together make up the pseudocarp in fig fruit-were analyzed. There were 5189, 5818 and 2563 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) 2, 4 and 6 days after treatment (DAT) in treated compared to control fruit, screened by p-adjust < 0.05 and |log2(fold change) |≥ 2. The DEGs were significantly enriched in plant hormone metabolism and signal transduction, cell-wall modification, sugar accumulation and anthocyanin accumulation pathways. DEGs in the first three pathway categories demonstrated an overall similar expression change in flowers and receptacles, whereas DEGs in anthocyanin pigmentation revealed divergent transcript abundance. Specifically, in both flowers and receptacles, ethephon significantly upregulated 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase and downregulated most of the ethylene-response factor genes; polygalacturonase, pectate lyase and expansin were mainly upregulated; two acid beta-fructofuranosidases were upregulated. However, structural genes in the anthocyanin-synthesis pathway were mainly downregulated in female flowers 2 and 4 DAT, whereas they were upregulated in the receptacles. Our study reveals the regulatory landscape of the two tissues of fig fruit in ethylene-induced ripening; the differentially expressed pathways and genes provide valuable resources for the mining of target genes for crucial biological and commercial trait improvement.

The Solanum tuberosum KST1 partial promoter as a tool for guard cell expression in multiple plant species.

To date, guard cell promoters have been examined in only a few species, primarily annual dicots. A partial segment of the potato (Solanum tuberosum) KST1 promoter (KST1 partial promoter, KST1ppro) has previously been shown to confer guard cell expression in potato, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), citrus [Troyer citrange (C. sinensis×Poncirus trifoliata)], and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Here, we describe an extensive analysis of the expression pattern of KST1ppro in eight (previously reported, as well as new) species from five different angiosperm families, including the Solanaceae and the Cucurbitaceae, Arabidopsis, the monocot barley (Hordeum vulgare), and two perennial species: grapevine (Vitis vinifera) and citrus. Using confocal imaging and three-dimensional movies, we demonstrate that KST1ppro drives guard cell expression in all of these species, making it the first dicot-originated guard cell promoter shown to be active in a monocot and the first promoter reported to confer guard cell expression in barley and cucumber (Cucumis sativus). The results presented here indicate that KST1ppro can be used to drive constitutive guard cell expression in monocots and dicots and in both annual and perennial plants. In addition, we show that the KST1ppro is active in guard cells shortly after the symmetric division of the guard mother cell and generates stable expression in mature guard cells. This allows us to follow the spatial and temporal distribution of stomata in cotyledons and true leaves.

LongSAGE gene-expression profiling of Botrytis cinerea germination suppressed by resveratrol, the major grapevine phytoalexin.

The ascomycetes Botrytis cinerea is one of the most studied necrotrophic phytopathogens and one of the main fungal parasites of grapevine. As a defense mechanism, grapevine produces a phytoalexin compound, resveratrol, which inhibits germination of the fungal conidium before it can penetrate the plant barriers and lead to host cell necrotrophy. To elucidate the effect of resveratrol on transcriptional regulation in B. cinerea germlings, two LongSAGE (long serial analysis of gene expression) libraries were generated in vitro for gene-expression profiling: 41 428 tags and among them, 15 665 unitags were obtained from resveratrol-treated B. cinerea germlings and 41 358 tags, among them, 16 362 unitags were obtained from non-treated B. cinerea germlings. In-silico analysis showed that about half of these unitags match known genes in the complete B. cinerea genome sequence. Comparison of unitag frequencies between libraries highlighted 110 genes that were transcriptionally regulated in the presence of resveratrol: 53 and 57 genes were significantly down- and upregulated, respectively. Manual curation of their putative functional categories showed that primary metabolism of germinating conidia appears to be markedly affected under resveratrol treatment, along with changes in other putative metabolic pathways, such as resveratrol detoxification and virulence-effector secretion, in B. cinerea germlings. We propose a hypothetical model of cross talk between B. cinerea germinating conidia and resveratrol-producing grapevine at the very early steps of infection.