Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #369815
Research Project: Management of Priority Legume, Oilseed, Vegetable, Forage Grass, Sugar, Ornamental, and Medicinal Plant Genetic Resources and Associated Information

Location: Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research

Title: The molecular mechanisms underlying plant vernalization revealed by systems analysis of transcriptomes in chickpea and related species

Author
item CILKIZ, MUSTAFA - Texas A&M University
item ZHANG, YANG - Texas A&M University
item ZHANG, MEIPING - Texas A&M University
item ABBO, SHAHAL - Hebrew University
item SHERMAN, AMIR - Volcani Center (ARO)
item Coyne, Clarice - Clare
item Vandemark, George
item ZHANG, HONG-BIN - Texas A&M University

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/9/2019
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Chickpea, Cicer arietinum, is the second most important cultivated food legume crop. In a number of crop species, such as winter wheat can only flower after exposure to low winter, which is known as vernalization. Wild, but not domesticated chickpea is also vernalization responsive. In this study, we sequenced the transcriptomes of the seedlings of domesticated and chickpea and five related species with and without vernalization. Using the transcriptome sequences, we first generated a pan transcriptome for chickpea that consists of 38,062 protein-coding genes. Then, we profiled the expressions of the genes in the seedlings of all six species. A total of 4,663 transcripts were differentially expressed (DETs), when the seedlings were vernalized, of which 1,151 commonly differentially expressed in at least two species (P = 0.05). This result suggested that these species have both common and species-specific responses to vernalization. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of the 1,151 DETs highlighted that most of the enriched GO terms (P = 0.05) were responsible for photosynthesis, transport, response to stress, nuclease activity, signaling receptor activity, kinase activity, chloroplast and thylakoid. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that most of the enriched up-regulated DETs were found to participate in carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms, folate biosynthesis, carbon metabolism, pentose phosphate pathway, and biosynthesis of amino acids, while those enriched down-regulated DETs are involved in metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, pyruvate metabolism, and alpha-linolenic acid metabolism. Of these 1,151 DETs, 79 were transcription factors (TFs), with 45 and 34 up- and down-regulated, respectively. The TF families, AP2/ERF, bHLH, MYB, SBP, C2H2, bZIP, C3H, GARP-G2-like, TUB, FAR1, TCP and Trihelix, were predominantly expressed, suggesting that they might play critical roles in the vernalization response of chickpea and related species. These results provide a fundamental insight into the underlying mechanism of plant vernalization.