Transcriptome Analysis of <em>Gerbera hybrida</em> Ray Florets: Putative Genes Associated with Gibberellin Metabolism and Signal Transduction

<div><p>In this study, the transcriptome of the <i>Gerbera hybrida</i> ray floret was constructed using a high-throughput Illumina sequencing platform. All 47,104 UniGenes with an average length of 845 nt and an N50 equaling 1321 nt were generated from 72,688,546 total primary reads after filtering and assembly. A total of 36,693 transcripts were annotated by comparison with non-redundant National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) protein (Nr), non-redundant NCBI nucleotide (Nt), Gene Ontology (GO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases after removing exogenous contaminated sequences. The majority of the genes that are associated with gibberellin metabolism and signal transduction were identified. The targets for signal transduction of other plant hormones were also enumerated. Our study provides a systematic overview of the hormone signal transduction genes that are involved in ray floral development in Asteraceae and should facilitate further understanding of the crucial roles of phytohormones in plant growth.</p> </div

Proposed pathways of GA metabolism in <i>G. hybrida</i> ray florets (derived from KEGG map00904, with modification).

<p>The compounds are noted in black, and the identified enzymes in <i>G. hybrida</i> florets are noted in blue.</p

COG function classification of UniGenes.

<p>COG function classification of UniGenes.</p

Statistics of Contig and UniGene assembly qualities.

<p>All sizes of the Contigs and UniGenes were calculated.</p

RT-PCR for some candidate genes in stage 1 (S1) to stage 6 (S6).

<p>RT-PCR analysis was repeated on three independent samples and the representative ethidium bromide gel pictures are shown. Primer pairs for each distinct gene are listed in Supplemental table S5. <i>GACN01029707</i> and <i>AJ763915</i> were used as the normalization controls.</p

Statistics of GA signal transduction genes in G. hybrida ray floret.

<p>Statistics of GA signal transduction genes in G. hybrida ray floret.</p

Statistics of GA metabolism related genes in G. hybrida ray florets.

<p>Statistics of GA metabolism related genes in G. hybrida ray florets.</p

Summary of the annotations of Gerber hybrida ray floret UniGenes.

<p>Summary of the annotations of Gerber hybrida ray floret UniGenes.</p

Phylogram tree of five AtDELLA proteins and four putative DELLA proteins in <i>G. hybrida</i> using ClustalW2.

<p>Phylogram tree of five AtDELLA proteins and four putative DELLA proteins in <i>G. hybrida</i> using ClustalW2.</p

Summary of the transcriptome of Gerbera hybrida ray florets.

<p>Summary of the transcriptome of Gerbera hybrida ray florets.</p