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. 2016 Feb 24:6:21729.
doi: 10.1038/srep21729.

Transcriptome sequencing of Crucihimalaya himalaica (Brassicaceae) reveals how Arabidopsis close relative adapt to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Qin Qiao  1 , Qia Wang  2   3 , Xi Han  2 , Yanlong Guan  2 , Hang Sun  2 , Yang Zhong  4 , Jinling Huang  5 , Ticao Zhang  2
Affiliations

Transcriptome sequencing of Crucihimalaya himalaica (Brassicaceae) reveals how Arabidopsis close relative adapt to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Qin Qiao et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The extreme environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) provides an ideal natural laboratory for studies on adaptive evolution. Few genome/transcriptome based studies have been conducted on how plants adapt to the environments of QTP compared to numerous studies on vertebrates. Crucihimalaya himalaica is a close relative of Arabidopsis with typical QTP distribution, and is hoped to be a new model system to study speciation and ecological adaptation in extreme environment. In this study, we de novo generated a transcriptome sequence of C. himalaica, with a total of 49,438 unigenes. Compared to five relatives, 10,487 orthogroups were shared by all six species, and 4,286 orthogroups contain putative single copy gene. Further analysis identified 487 extremely significantly positively selected genes (PSGs) in C. himalaica transcriptome. Theses PSGs were enriched in functions related to specific adaptation traits, such as response to radiation, DNA repair, nitrogen metabolism, and stabilization of membrane. These functions are responsible for the adaptation of C. himalaica to the high radiation, soil depletion and low temperature environments on QTP. Our findings indicate that C. himalaica has evolved complex strategies for adapting to the extreme environments on QTP and provide novel insights into genetic mechanisms of highland adaptation in plants.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Species classification (A) and e-value distribution (B) of the unigenes of C. himalaica annotated to NCBI Nr database.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Phylogenetic relationships and dN/dS ratios distribution of C. himalaica and its relatives.
(A) Phylogenetic tree derived from concatenated all orthologs (1,506,379 amino acids) of six species. (B) Boxplots of dN/dS ratios for each species. The median dN/dS ratio and significances of the deviations using Wilcoxon rank sum test are also showed in the boxplots. (C) Number of orthologs with given dN/dS ratios for the six species.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Distribution of KEGG classification of PSGs in C. himalaica.
(A) Cellular Processes; (B) Environmental Information Processing; (C) Genetic Information Processing; (D) Metabolism; (E) Organismal Systems.
Figure 4
Figure 4. GO enrichment of PSGs related to ecological adaptation in C. himalaica.
The Arabic numbers show the enriched number of PSGs in each term.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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