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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wenatchee, Washington » Physiology and Pathology of Tree Fruits Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #363589
Research Project: Developmental Genomics and Metabolomics Influencing Temperate Tree Fruit Quality

Location: Physiology and Pathology of Tree Fruits Research

Title: Application of workflow designed to leverage transcriptome data for enhanced gene expression analysis in tree fruits

Author
item Hargarten, Heidi
item SCHMIDT, REBECCA - Former ARS Employee
item KAHAN, ELENA - Former ARS Employee
item Honaas, Loren

Submitted to: American Society of Horticulture Science Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/2019
Publication Date: 7/21/2019
Citation: Hargarten, H.L., Schmidt, R., Kahan, E., Honaas, L.A. 2019. Application of workflow designed to leverage transcriptome data for enhanced gene expression analysis in tree fruits. American Society of Horticulture Science Meeting. Meeting Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Complex changes in gene expression occur during postharvest storage of tree fruits and often precede or accompany changes in ripening and disorder development. Targeted gene expression analysis fundamentally relies upon prior knowledge of the targeted gene. In an effort to improve this prior knowledge, we developed a workflow that leverages transcriptome data to discover cultivar-specific gene sequences and then guide primer design for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). We find that potentially problematic polymorphisms occur frequently in genes of interest when candidate primer binding sites were selected using a mismatched reference genome. These polymorphisms can be accounted for when utilizing transcriptome data from the target cultivar. We applied our work flow to another tree fruit, Pyrus communis, for qPCR validation of RNA-seq data generated from ‘D’Anjou’, but analyzed using the ‘Bartlett’ reference genome.