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. 2022 Jul 7:2022:8445484.
doi: 10.1155/2022/8445484. eCollection 2022.

Transcriptomic Insight into Viviparous Growth in Water Lily

Qun Su  1 , Hong-Yan Wang  1 , Min Tian  2   3 , Chun-Niu Li  1 , Xian-Min Li  1 , Zhan-Wen Huang  1 , Zhao-Yang Bu  1 , Jia-Shi Lu  1
Affiliations

Transcriptomic Insight into Viviparous Growth in Water Lily

Qun Su et al. Biomed Res Int. .

Abstract

Water lily is an important ornamental flower plant which is capable of viviparous plantlet development. But no study has been reported on the molecular basis of viviparity in water lily. Hence, we performed a comparative transcriptome study between viviparous water lily Nymphaea micrantha and a nonviviparous species Nymphaea colorata at four developmental stages. The higher expression of highly conserved AUX/IAA, ARF, GH3, and SAUR gene families in N. micrantha compared to N. colorata is predicted to have a major impact on the development and evolution of viviparity in water lily. Likewise, differential regulation of hormone signaling, brassinosteroid, photosynthesis, and energy-related pathways in the two species provide clues of their involvement in viviparity phenomenon. This study revealed the complex mechanism of viviparity trait in water lily. The transcriptomic signatures identified are important basis for future breeding and research of viviparity in water lily and other plant species.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Morphological identification of viviparity in N. micrantha. (a–c) Different stages of the development of the viviparous structures.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flowers of nonviviparous N. colorata (a and b) and viviparous N. micrantha (c and d). The red arrows indicate the viviparous structure, and numeric 1 to 4 in (b) and (d) indicated the four developmental stages.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Relation among the biological samples of two Nymphaea species at four developmental stages revealed by expression evaluation with FPKM values (a), the principal component analysis (b), and correlation between samples (c). The four developmental stages are indicated by numeric 1 to 4 for N. colorata, as L1-L4, and N. micrantha, as X1-X4; the number in each box in (c) is the value of Pearson's coefficient of correlation, while color scale indicates its significance from 0 to 1.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Summary of differentially expressed genes between two Nymphaea species. (a) The DEG between two Nymphaea species at four developmental stages, (b) the frequency of overlapping and unique DEG at four developmental stages, (c) the volcano graph of DEG in N. micrantha between its early and late developmental stages X1×X4, and (d) volcano graph for DEGs between two species at late developmental stage as L4×X4, where L represents the N. colorata and X represents N. micrantha.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Regulation of plant hormone signaling pathway in viviparous and nonviviparous Nymphaea species. Heatmap based log 2 FC values of DEGs related to auxin (a), cytokinin (c), and brassinosteroid, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid (d) in all four developmental stages. Pathway map (b) showing the differential regulation of plant hormone signaling pathway between N. micrantha and N. colorata. In pathway map (b), the genes highlighted in green are downregulated, in red are upregulated, and in yellow are up-/downregulated DEGs.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Regulation of photosynthesis pathway in viviparous and nonviviparous Nymphaea species. Heatmaps showing log 2 FC values of DEGs in all four developmental stages. Pathway map showing the differential regulation of photosynthesis related pathways between N. micrantha and N. colorata. The genes highlighted in green, red, and yellow colors represent down-, up -, and up-/downregulated DEGs.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Heatmaps of log2 fold change values of differentially expressed genes involved in carbon fixation pathway and the flavonoid biosynthesis pathways commonly observed in all four developmental stages of Nymphaea species.
Figure 8
Figure 8
qRT-PCR validation of ten selected differentially expressed genes. The error bar represents standard deviation (SD) of three technical and biological replicates. ∗ means the gene expression between the two species at each growth stage was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) different. The four developmental stages are indicated by numeric 1 to 4 for N. colorata (L) as L1-L4 and N. micrantha (X) as X1-X4.
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