High-Density Genetic Map Construction and Identification of QTLs Controlling Leaf Abscission Trait in Poncirus trifoliata.

A high-density genetic linkage map is essential for genetic and genomic studies including QTL mapping, genome assembly, and comparative genomic analysis. Here, we constructed a citrus high-density linkage map using SSR and SNP markers, which are evenly distributed across the citrus genome. The integrated linkage map contains 4163 markers with an average distance of 1.12 cM. The female and male linkage maps contain 1478 and 2976 markers with genetic lengths of 1093.90 cM and 1227.03 cM, respectively. Meanwhile, a genetic map comparison demonstrates that the linear order of common markers is highly conserved between the clementine mandarin and Poncirus trifoliata. Based on this high-density integrated citrus genetic map and two years of deciduous phenotypic data, two loci conferring leaf abscission phenotypic variation were detected on scaffold 1 (including 36 genes) and scaffold 8 (including 107 genes) using association analysis. Moreover, the expression patterns of 30 candidate genes were investigated under cold stress conditions because cold temperature is closely linked with the deciduous trait. The developed high-density genetic map will facilitate QTL mapping and genomic studies, and the localization of the leaf abscission deciduous trait will be valuable for understanding the mechanism of this deciduous trait and citrus breeding.

Effects of Light Intensity and Spectral Composition on the Transcriptome Profiles of Leaves in Shade Grown Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis L.) and Regulatory Network of Flavonoid Biosynthesis.

Black net shade treatment attenuates flavonoid biosynthesis in tea plants, while the effect of light quality is still unclear. We investigated the flavonoid and transcriptome profiles of tea leaves under different light conditions, using black nets with different shade percentages, blue, yellow and red nets to alter the light intensity and light spectral composition in the fields. Flavonol glycosides are more sensitive to light intensity than catechins, with a reduction percentage of total flavonol glycosides up to 79.6% compared with 38.7% of total catechins under shade treatment. A total of 29,292 unigenes were identified, and the KEGG result indicated that flavonoid biosynthesis was regulated by both light intensity and light spectral composition while phytohormone signal transduction was modulated under blue net shade treatment. PAL, CHS, and F3H were transcriptionally downregulated with light intensity. Co-expression analysis showed the expressions of key transcription factors MYB12, MYB86, C1, MYB4, KTN80.4, and light signal perception and signaling genes (UVR8, HY5) had correlations with the contents of certain flavonoids (p < 0.05). The level of abscisic acid in tea leaves was elevated under shade treatment, with a negative correlation with TFG content (p < 0.05). This work provides a potential route of changing light intensity and spectral composition in the field to alter the compositions of flavor substances in tea leaves and regulate plant growth, which is instructive to the production of summer/autumn tea and matcha.

Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of SQUAMOSA-Promoter-Binding Protein (SBP) Genes Involved in the Flowering Development of Citrus Clementina.

SQUAMOSA-promoter binding protein (SBP)-box genes encode a family of plant-specific transcription factors that play vital roles in plant growth and development. In this study, 15 SBP-box genes were identified and isolated from Citrus clementina (CclSBPs), where 10 of these genes were predicted to be putative targets of Citrus clementina microRNA156 (CclmiR156). The 15 CclSBP genes could be classified into six groups based on phylogenetic analysis, diverse intron⁻exon structure, and motif prediction, similar to the SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein-like (SPL) gene family of Populus trichocarpa and Arabidopsis thaliana. Furthermore, CclSBPs classified into a group/subgroup have similar gene structures and conserved motifs, implying their functional redundancy. Tissue-specific expression analysis of CclSBPs demonstrated their diversified expression patterns. To further explore the potential role of CclSBPs during floral inductive water deficits, the dynamic changes of the 15 CclSBPs were investigated during floral inductive water deficits, and the results showed that some CclSBPs were associated with floral induction. Among these genes, CclSBP6 was not homologous to the Arabidopsis SBP-box gene family, and CclSBP7 was regulated by being alternatively spliced. Therefore, CclSBP6 and CclSBP7 were genetically transformed in Arabidopsis. Overexpression of the two genes changed the flowering time of Arabidopsis.

MicroRNA-Mediated Gene Silencing in Plant Defense and Viral Counter-Defense.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs of approximately 20-24 nucleotides in length that serve as central regulators of eukaryotic gene expression by targeting mRNAs for cleavage or translational repression. In plants, miRNAs are associated with numerous regulatory pathways in growth and development processes, and defensive responses in plant-pathogen interactions. Recently, significant progress has been made in understanding miRNA-mediated gene silencing and how viruses counter this defense mechanism. Here, we summarize the current knowledge and recent advances in understanding the roles of miRNAs involved in the plant defense against viruses and viral counter-defense. We also document the application of miRNAs in plant antiviral defense. This review discusses the current understanding of the mechanisms of miRNA-mediated gene silencing and provides insights on the never-ending arms race between plants and viruses.

Genome-wide screening and characterization of long non-coding RNAs involved in flowering development of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf.).

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to play critical regulatory roles in post-transcriptional and transcriptional regulation in Arabidopsis. However, lncRNAs and their functional roles remain poorly characterized in woody plants, including citrus. To identify lncRNAs and investigate their role in citrus flowering, paired-end strand-specific RNA sequencing was performed for precocious trifoliate orange and its wild-type counterpart. A total of 6,584 potential lncRNAs were identified, 51.6% of which were from intergenic regions. Additionally, 555 lncRNAs were significantly up-regulated and 276 lncRNAs were down-regulated in precocious trifoliate orange, indicating that lncRNAs could be involved in the regulation of trifoliate orange flowering. Comparisons between lncRNAs and coding genes indicated that lncRNAs tend to have shorter transcripts and lower expression levels and that they display significant expression specificity. More importantly, 59 and 7 lncRNAs were identified as putative targets and target mimics of citrus miRNAs, respectively. In addition, the targets of Pt-miR156 and Pt-miR396 were confirmed using the regional amplification reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction method. Furthermore, overexpression of Pt-miR156a1 and Pt-miR156a1 in Arabidopsis resulted in an extended juvenile phase, short siliques, and smaller leaves in transgenic plants compared with control plants. These findings provide important insight regarding citrus lncRNAs, thus enabling in-depth functional analyses.

Regulatory effects of cotranscriptional RNA structure formation and transitions.

RNAs, which play significant roles in many fundamental biological processes of life, fold into sophisticated and precise structures. RNA folding is a dynamic and intricate process, which conformation transition of coding and noncoding RNAs form the primary elements of genetic regulation. The cellular environment contains various intrinsic and extrinsic factors that potentially affect RNA folding in vivo, and experimental and theoretical evidence increasingly indicates that the highly flexible features of the RNA structure are affected by these factors, which include the flanking sequence context, physiochemical conditions, cis RNA-RNA interactions, and RNA interactions with other molecules. Furthermore, distinct RNA structures have been identified that govern almost all steps of biological processes in cells, including transcriptional activation and termination, transcriptional mutagenesis, 5'-capping, splicing, 3'-polyadenylation, mRNA export and localization, and translation. Here, we briefly summarize the dynamic and complex features of RNA folding along with a wide variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect RNA folding. We then provide several examples to elaborate RNA structure-mediated regulation at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. Finally, we illustrate the regulatory roles of RNA structure and discuss advances pertaining to RNA structure in plants. WIREs RNA 2016, 7:562-574. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1350 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Identifying the genome-wide genetic variation between precocious trifoliate orange and its wild type and developing new markers for genetics research.

To increase our understanding of the genes involved in flowering in citrus, we performed genome resequencing of an early flowering trifoliate orange mutant (Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf.) and its wild type. At the genome level, 3,932,628 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), 1,293,383 insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels), and 52,135 structural variations were identified between the mutant and its wild type based on the citrus reference genome. Based on integrative analysis of resequencing and transcriptome analysis, 233,998 SNPs and 75,836 InDels were also identified between the mutant and its wild type at the transcriptional level. Also, 272 citrus homologous flowering-time transcripts containing genetic variation were also identified. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes annotation revealed that the transcripts containing the mutant- and the wild-type-specific InDel were involved in diverse biological processes and molecular function. Among these transcripts, there were 131 transcripts that were expressed differently in the two genotypes. When 268 selected InDels were tested on 32 genotypes of the three genera of Rutaceae for the genetic diversity assessment, these InDel-based markers showed high transferability. This work provides important information that will allow a better understanding of the citrus genome and that will be helpful for dissecting the genetic basis of important traits in citrus.

Genome-wide classification and evolutionary and expression analyses of citrus MYB transcription factor families in sweet orange.

MYB family genes are widely distributed in plants and comprise one of the largest transcription factors involved in various developmental processes and defense responses of plants. To date, few MYB genes and little expression profiling have been reported for citrus. Here, we describe and classify 177 members of the sweet orange MYB gene (CsMYB) family in terms of their genomic gene structures and similarity to their putative Arabidopsis orthologs. According to these analyses, these CsMYBs were categorized into four groups (4R-MYB, 3R-MYB, 2R-MYB and 1R-MYB). Gene structure analysis revealed that 1R-MYB genes possess relatively more introns as compared with 2R-MYB genes. Investigation of their chromosomal localizations revealed that these CsMYBs are distributed across nine chromosomes. Sweet orange includes a relatively small number of MYB genes compared with the 198 members in Arabidopsis, presumably due to a paralog reduction related to repetitive sequence insertion into promoter and non-coding transcribed region of the genes. Comparative studies of CsMYBs and Arabidopsis showed that CsMYBs had fewer gene duplication events. Expression analysis revealed that the MYB gene family has a wide expression profile in sweet orange development and plays important roles in development and stress responses. In addition, 337 new putative microsatellites with flanking sequences sufficient for primer design were also identified from the 177 CsMYBs. These results provide a useful reference for the selection of candidate MYB genes for cloning and further functional analysis forcitrus.

Development and characterization of genomic and expressed SSRs in citrus by genome-wide analysis.

Microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are one of the most popular sources of genetic markers and play a significant role in plant genetics and breeding. In this study, we identified citrus SSRs in the genome of Clementine mandarin and analyzed their frequency and distribution in different genomic regions. A total of 80,708 SSRs were detected in the genome with an overall density of 268 SSRs/Mb. While di-nucleotide repeats were the most frequent microsatellites in genomic DNA sequence, tetra-nucleotides, which had more repeat units than any other SSR types, had the highest cumulative sequence length. We identified 6,834 transcripts as containing 8,989 SSRs in 33,929 Clementine mandarin transcripts, among which, tri-nucleotide motifs (36.0%) were the most common, followed by di-nucleotide (26.9%) and hexa-nucleotide motifs (15.1%). The motif AG (16.7%) was most abundant among these SSRs, while motifs AAG (6.6%), AAT (5.0%), and TAG (2.2%) were most common among tri-nucleotides. Functional categorization of transcripts containing SSRs revealed that 5,879 (86.0%) of such transcripts had homology with known proteins, GO and KEGG annotation revealed that transcripts containing SSRs were those implicated in diverse biological processes in plants, including binding, development, transcription, and protein degradation. When 27 genomic and 78 randomly selected SSRs were tested on Clementine mandarin, 95 SSRs revealed polymorphism. These 95 SSRs were further deployed on 18 genotypes of the three generas of Rutaceae for the genetic diversity assessment, genomic SSRs generally show low transferability in comparison to SSRs developed from expressed sequences. These transcript-markers identified in our study may provide a valuable genetic and genomic tool for further genetic research and varietal development in citrus, such as diversity study, QTL mapping, molecular breeding, comparative mapping and other genetic analyses.