Transcriptomic analysis reveals ethylene signal transduction genes involved in pistil development of pumpkin

Qingfei Li; Li Zhang; Feifei Pan; Weili Guo; Bihua Chen; Helian Yang; Guangyin Wang; Xinzheng Li

doi:10.7717/peerj.9677

Transcriptomic analysis reveals ethylene signal transduction genes involved in pistil development of pumpkin

PeerJ. 2020 Aug 18:8:e9677. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9677. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Qingfei Li^{1

2}, Li Zhang^{1

2}, Feifei Pan^{1

2}, Weili Guo^{1

2}, Bihua Chen^{1

2}, Helian Yang^{1

2}, Guangyin Wang^{1

2}, Xinzheng Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Horticulture and Landscape, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xin Xiang, China.
² Henan Province Engineering Research Center of Horticultural Plant Resource Utilization and Germplasm Enhancement, Xin Xiang, China.

Abstract

Development of female flowers is an important process that directly affects the yield of Cucubits. Little information is available on the sex determination and development of female flowers in pumpkin, a typical monoecious plant. In the present study, we used aborted and normal pistils of pumpkin for RNA-Seq analysis and determined the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) to gain insights into the molecular mechanism underlying pistil development in pumpkin. A total of 3,817 DEGs were identified, among which 1,341 were upregulated and 2,476 were downregulated. The results of transcriptome analysis were confirmed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs were significantly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway. Eighty-four DEGs were enriched in the plant hormone signal transduction pathway, which accounted for 12.54% of the significant DEGs, and most of them were annotated as predicted ethylene responsive or insensitive transcription factor genes. Furthermore, the expression levels of four ethylene signal transduction genes in different flower structures (female calyx, pistil, male calyx, stamen, leaf, and ovary) were investigated. The ethyleneresponsive DNA binding factor, ERDBF3, and ethylene responsive transcription factor, ERTF10, showed the highest expression in pistils and the lowest expression in stamens, and their expression levels were 78- and 162-times more than that in stamens, respectively. These results suggest that plant hormone signal transduction genes, especially ethylene signal transduction genes, play an important role in the development of pistils in pumpkin. Our study provides a theoretical basis for further understanding of the mechanism of regulation of ethylene signal transduction genes in pistil development and sex determination in pumpkin.

Keywords: Ethylene; Phenylpropanoid; Pistil development; Plant hormone signal transduction; Pumpkin; Transcriptome.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.11515167.v1

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Key Science and Technology Program of Henan Province (No. 182102110049 and 192102110155), the Henan Province Construction Project for Bulk Vegetable Industry Technical System (No. S2010-03-G06), and the PhD research startup foundation of the Henan Institute of Science and Technology. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.