Doing Genetic and Genomic Biology Using the Legume Information System and Associated Resources.

In this chapter, we introduce the main components of the Legume Information System ( https://legumeinfo.org ) and several associated resources. Additionally, we provide an example of their use by exploring a biological question: is there a common molecular basis, across legume species, that underlies the photoperiod-mediated transition from vegetative to reproductive development, that is, days to flowering? The Legume Information System (LIS) holds genetic and genomic data for a large number of crop and model legumes and provides a set of online bioinformatic tools designed to help biologists address questions and tasks related to legume biology. Such tasks include identifying the molecular basis of agronomic traits; identifying orthologs/syntelogs for known genes; determining gene expression patterns; accessing genomic datasets; identifying markers for breeding work; and identifying genetic similarities and differences among selected accessions. LIS integrates with other legume-focused informatics resources such as SoyBase ( https://soybase.org ), PeanutBase ( https://peanutbase.org ), and projects of the Legume Federation ( https://legumefederation.org ).

Transcriptome analysis of cytokinin response in tomato leaves.

Tomato is one of the most economically and agriculturally important Solanaceous species and vegetable crops, serving as a model for examination of fruit biology and compound leaf development. Cytokinin is a plant hormone linked to the control of leaf development and is known to regulate a wide range of genes including many transcription factors. Currently there is little known of the leaf transcriptome in tomato and how it might be regulated by cytokinin. We employ high throughput mRNA sequencing technology and bioinformatic methodologies to robustly analyze cytokinin regulated tomato leaf transcriptomes. Leaf samples of two ages, 13d and 35d were treated with cytokinin or the solvent vehicle control dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) for 2 h or 24 h, after which RNA was extracted for sequencing. To confirm the accuracy of RNA sequencing results, we performed qPCR analysis of select transcripts identified as cytokinin regulated by the RNA sequencing approach. The resulting data provide the first hormone transcriptome analysis of leaves in tomato. Specifically we identified several previously untested tomato orthologs of cytokinin-related genes as well as numerous novel cytokinin-regulated transcripts in tomato leaves. Principal component analysis of the data indicates that length of cytokinin treatment and plant age are the major factors responsible for changes in transcripts observed in this study. Two hour cytokinin treatment showed a more robust transcript response indicated by both greater fold change of induced transcripts and the induction of twice as many cytokinin-related genes involved in signaling, metabolism, and transport in young vs. older leaves. This difference in transcriptome response in younger vs. older leaves was also found to a lesser extent with an extended (24 h) cytokinin treatment. Overall data presented here provides a solid foundation for future study of cytokinin and cytokinin regulated genes involved in compound leaf development or other developmental processes in tomato.