Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 31;17(1):2149113.
doi: 10.1080/15592324.2022.2149113.

Comparative transcriptome analysis of the effects of friction and exogenous gibberellin on germination in Abrus cantoniensis

Zhu Yanxia  1 , Jiang Jianping  2 , Huang Yanfen  1 , Dong Qingsong  1 , Wei Kunhua  1
Affiliations

Comparative transcriptome analysis of the effects of friction and exogenous gibberellin on germination in Abrus cantoniensis

Zhu Yanxia et al. Plant Signal Behav. .

Abstract

The seeds of Abrus cantoniensis (A. cantonensis) have dormancy characteristics with very low germination under natural conditions. In general, its seed dormancy could be broken by friction or soaking with exogenous gibberellins (GA3). To date, the molecular mechanism underlying the effects of GA3 and friction on its seed germination is unclear. In this study, we tested the effects of different treatments, including soaking in sterile water (G1), friction (G2), soaking in GA3 (G3), combined treatment of friction, and GA3 (G4)) on seed germination. Then, we have investigated the seed transcriptome profiles corresponding to the different treatments by RNA sequencing. The results showed that seed germination was significantly increased by combined treatment with friction and GA3. RNA-Seq analysis generated 84.80 gigabases (Gb) of sequences. 82,996 out of 121,776 unigenes were annotated. Comparative transcriptome analysis observed that 1,130, 1,097, and 708 unigenes were deferentially expressed in G1 vs. G2, G1 vs. G3, and G1 vs. G4 groups, respectively. Additionally, 20 putatively candidate genes related to seed germination, including CYP78A5, Bg7s, GA-20-ox, rd22, MYB4, LEA, CHS, and STH-2, and other potential candidates with abundant expression were identified. Our findings provide first insights into gene expression profiles and physiological response for friction combined with GA3 on A. cantoniensis seed germination.

Keywords: Abrus cantoniensis; candidate gene; seed germination; transcriptome analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The seed morphology of A. cantonensis.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The change trend of A. cantonensis seed germination with the time.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The morphology during the early stage of germination of A. cantonensis seeds.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Functional annotations of the unigenes of the A. cantoniensis seed transcriptome. (a) The species identified by a homology search against the NR databases. (b) KOG function annotation. (c) GO function annotation.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Statistics of DEGs among the three groups. (a) Statistical analysis of up-/downregulated unigenes in the three groups. (b) Venn diagram of all DEGs.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Heatmap analysis for common genes of G1 vs G2 and G1 vs G4.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Verification of the expression levels determined by qRT-PCR and RNA-seq. Groups with different letters represent significant difference (p < .05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Committee SP. Pharmacopoeia of the people’s Republic of China. Beijing: Chinese medicine science and technology Press. 2020:203. ISBN:978-7-5214-1574-2.
    1. Medica EBOCM. Chinese herbal essence. China: Shanghai: Shanghai science and Technology Press; 1999.
    1. Liu L, Tang H, Su Z, Tan M, Hu J, Li C, Yi Y. Studies on the treatment of hard seeds of some plants with sulphuric acid. Chin Med J. 1997;22:3. - PubMed
    1. Dong Q, Yan Z, Bai L, Chen Q, Ma X. Study on seed germination conditions of Abrus cantoniensis. Seed. 2006;25:4.
    1. Liu R. Different treatments’ impact on abrus herb seed germination. J Guangxi Agriculture. 2010;25:4.

Publication types