西瓜食酸菌与黄瓜互作转录组分析

【背景】细菌性果斑病是一种严重的种传细菌病害,其病原菌为西瓜食酸菌。截至目前对该病病原菌与寄主的互作机制认识极为有限。葫芦科的模式植物黄瓜易被西瓜食酸菌侵染发病,对西瓜食酸菌-黄瓜互作体系进行转录组分析,可以为探究西瓜食酸菌与寄主互作机制奠定重要基础。【目的】解析西瓜食酸菌-黄瓜互作时的相互响应规律。【方法】以细菌悬液注射接种6d黄瓜子叶,处理48 h的子叶作为转录组测序样本。利用RNA-Seq技术分析西瓜食酸菌FC440菌株与黄瓜9930品种互作时基因的表达特征。【结果】测序数据质量分析发现,各样品不同重复间相关性较强,与参考基因组比对率达95%以上,聚类分析发现对照组与处理组表达模式相反,样品处理达到一定效果,表明数据整体质量较高。选取6个差异表达基因进行RT-qPCR验证,结果显示6个基因的表达模式与转录组结果基本一致,表明转录组测序结果比较可靠。西瓜食酸菌和黄瓜互作48 h后,在转录组水平分别检测到1 618个和8 698个差异表达基因。Gene Ontology (GO)功能注释显示,细菌的差异基因显著富集在细胞组分中的细胞膜(37.5%)和膜部分(27.0%),生物过程中的氧化还原过程(66.7%)以及分子功能中的水解酶活性(66.5%);黄瓜的差异基因显著富集在细胞组分中的质体(22.2%)和叶绿体(21.3%),分子功能中的催化活性(70.0%)以及生物过程中的碳水化合物衍生物代谢(32.2%)。Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)分析显示,细菌中致病相关基因显著富集在群体感应及细菌趋化性途径,而且群体感应系统基因下调更显著。黄瓜中调控钙依赖蛋白激酶(Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase,CDPK)、钙调素和类钙调素(Calmodulin and Calmodulin-Like,CaMCML)及呼吸氧暴发激酶(Respiratory Burst Oxidase Homologne,Rboh)的基因总体上调,调控苯丙氨酸裂解酶(Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase,PAL)的基因和谷胱甘肽S-转移酶(Glutathione S-Transferase,GST)的基因在相应代谢途径中数量最多且上调程度明显。【结论】获得较高质量的西瓜食酸菌与黄瓜互作的转录组测序结果。群体感应与西瓜食酸菌FC440菌株致病力密切相关;寄主黄瓜应对西瓜食酸菌侵染以Ca~(2+)信号激活的防御反应为主。PAL和GST在黄瓜抵抗西瓜食酸菌侵染中发挥重要作用。本研究为进一步深入解析西瓜食酸菌与寄主互作的机制奠定了基础。     

Transcriptome analysis of the retina

The retina offers unique opportunities to define the molecular and cellular pathways mediating neuronal function and disease because of its morphological complexity, well-defined role in visual transduction and the availability of mutants. These investigations are being greatly facilitated by the ongoing identification of genes expressed in the retina using high-throughput methods.     

第二代测序技术用于水稻和稻瘟菌互作早期转录组的分析

稻瘟菌为了实现对水稻的有效侵染,在侵染水稻时可能通过表达和转运一定数量的效应蛋白进入到水稻细胞,抑制和干扰水稻的先天免疫机制。文章利用Solexa第二代测序技术,通过开展水稻和稻瘟菌互作早期转录组的测定和分析,克隆和鉴定在互作早期表达的稻瘟菌效应蛋白基因。利用序列同源比对,我们从总计约12.5 M条序列标签中,分离和鉴定了338 942条来源于稻瘟菌的序列,并最终定位到779个稻瘟菌预测基因。其中108个基因很可能参与了水稻和稻瘟菌互作过程,42个基因为预测的分泌蛋白基因。通过RT-PCR分析,最终确认了42个预测分泌蛋白基因中有12个基因在侵染水稻早期有显著的表达,而其中有4个基因表现为侵染早期特异表达。文章尝试利用第二代测序技术实现稻瘟菌侵染早期特异表达基因,尤其是分泌蛋白基因的快速克隆和鉴定,为稻瘟菌效应蛋白基因的克隆和功能鉴定提供了较为有意义的探索。     

绿色杜氏藻转录组分析

为了深入了解绿色杜氏藻(Dunaliella viridis)基因信息及功能、耐盐相关通路(甘油脂代谢)及关键酶,本文首次通过Illumina HiSeq^TM 2000高通量测序技术对绿色杜氏藻转录组进行测序,利用Trinity软件将数据组装形成转录本,对所有转录本进行COG(Clusters of Orthologous Groups)、GO(Gene Ontology)和KEGG(Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes)分类和功能注释、Pathway注释以及蛋白编码区(Opening reading fragment,ORF)的预测,并对甘油脂代谢通路关键酶基因进行了分析。转录组测序共获得81 593个转录本,其中ORF共有77 117条,约占所有转录本的94.50%。COG分类结果表明,16 569条转录本被分为24个类别。GO分类结果表明,76 436条转录本被注释。在所有注释分类中,生物学过程转录本数量最多,为30 678条,占总转录本数的40.14%。KEGG分析结果表明,317个标准途径中包含26 428条转录本,含转录本最多的类别是代谢,为9949条(37.65%)。与代谢有关的途径为131条,占所有注释途径的41.32%。在甘油脂代谢通路中仅发现1条关键酶转录本(二羟丙酮激酶),该酶可能与绿色杜氏藻耐盐胁迫中甘油的合成有较大关系。本研究进一步完善了绿色杜氏藻的基因信息,为绿色杜氏藻代谢途径研究奠定了坚实的基础。     

Functional analysis of the kinome of the wheat scab fungus Fusarium graminearum

As in other eukaryotes, protein kinases play major regulatory roles in filamentous fungi. Although the genomes of many plant pathogenic fungi have been sequenced, systematic characterization of their kinomes has not been reported. The wheat scab fungus Fusarium graminearum has 116 protein kinases (PK) genes. Although twenty of them appeared to be essential, we generated deletion mutants for the other 96 PK genes, including 12 orthologs of essential genes in yeast. All of the PK mutants were assayed for changes in 17 phenotypes, including growth, conidiation, pathogenesis, stress responses, and sexual reproduction. Overall, deletion of 64 PK genes resulted in at least one of the phenotypes examined, including three mutants blocked in conidiation and five mutants with increased tolerance to hyperosmotic stress. In total, 42 PK mutants were significantly reduced in virulence or non-pathogenic, including mutants deleted of key components of the cAMP signaling and three MAPK pathways. A number of these PK genes, including Fg03146 and Fg04770 that are unique to filamentous fungi, are dispensable for hyphal growth and likely encode novel fungal virulence factors. Ascospores play a critical role in the initiation of wheat scab. Twenty-six PK mutants were blocked in perithecia formation or aborted in ascosporogenesis. Additional 19 mutants were defective in ascospore release or morphology. Interestingly, F. graminearum contains two aurora kinase genes with distinct functions, which has not been reported in fungi. In addition, we used the interlog approach to predict the PK-PK and PK-protein interaction networks of F. graminearum. Several predicted interactions were verified with yeast two-hybrid or co-immunoprecipitation assays. To our knowledge, this is the first functional characterization of the kinome in plant pathogenic fungi. Protein kinase genes important for various aspects of growth, developmental, and infection processes in F. graminearum were identified in this study.     

禾谷镰刀菌cAMP受体类GPCR生物信息学分析

禾谷镰刀菌(Fusarium graminearum)是引起小麦赤霉病的主要致病菌。G蛋白偶联受体(G protein coupled receptors,GPCRs)是一类重要的细胞表面受体,其介导的cAMP信号通路可能参与了禾谷镰刀菌的致病和毒素合成,因此分析cAMP受体类型的GPCRs蛋白的结构及其理化性质对了解GPCRs的功能及其与赤霉病致病的关系具有重要意义。本研究运用生物信息学方法,对禾谷镰刀菌全基因组序列中cAMP类GPCR基因进行了生物信息学分析。发现禾谷镰刀菌中存在5个典型的cAMP受体类型GPCRs:FgcAR1、FgcAR2、FgcAR3、FgcAR4和FgcAR5,均含有7个跨膜结构域,并定位于细胞膜上。除FgcAR1外,其余为疏水性蛋白。蛋白质二级结构分析表明,均含有大量α螺旋,比例在60%左右,FgcAR4和FgcAR5没有β转角,FgcAR1、FgcAR2和FgcAR3也只有较少比例的β转角。这些GPCRs中含有较多的Ser和Thr磷酸化位点。遗传分析表明,禾谷镰刀菌cAMP受体类型的GPCR蛋白与假禾谷镰刀菌及F.langsethiae同源性最高,亲缘关系最近。本研究明确了禾谷镰刀菌中cAMP类GPCR蛋白的理化性质、定位、二级结构、磷酸化位点及进化关系,为了解小麦赤霉病发病机制及以GPCRs为靶标的新型杀菌剂研发奠定了基础。