| 1. |
- Sundell, David, et al.
(författare)
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AspWood : High-Spatial-Resolution Transcriptome Profiles Reveal Uncharacterized Modularity of Wood Formation in Populus tremula
- 2017
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Ingår i: The Plant Cell. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1040-4651 .- 1532-298X. ; 29:7, s. 1585-1604
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Trees represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink and a renewable source of ligno-cellulose. There is significant scope for yield and quality improvement in these largely undomesticated species, and efforts to engineer elite varieties will benefit from improved understanding of the transcriptional network underlying cambial growth and wood formation. We generated high-spatial-resolution RNA sequencing data spanning the secondary phloem, vascular cambium, and wood-forming tissues of Populus tremula. The transcriptome comprised 28,294 expressed, annotated genes, 78 novel protein-coding genes, and 567 putative long intergenic noncoding RNAs. Most paralogs originating from the Salicaceae whole-genome duplication had diverged expression, with the exception of those highly expressed during secondary cell wall deposition. Coexpression network analyses revealed that regulation of the transcriptome underlying cambial growth and wood formation comprises numerous modules forming a continuum of active processes across the tissues. A comparative analysis revealed that a majority of these modules are conserved in Picea abies. The high spatial resolution of our data enabled identification of novel roles for characterized genes involved in xylan and cellulose biosynthesis, regulators of xylem vessel and fiber differentiation and lignification. An associated web resource (AspWood, http://aspwood.popgenie.org) provides interactive tools for exploring the expression profiles and coexpression network.
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| 2. |
- Müller, Niels A., et al.
(författare)
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A single gene underlies the dynamic evolution of poplar sex determination.
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature Plants. - : Springer Nature. - 2055-0278 .- 2055-026X. ; 6:6, s. 630-637
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although hundreds of plant lineages have independently evolved dioecy (that is, separation of the sexes), the underlying genetic basis remains largely elusive. Here we show that diverse poplar species carry partial duplicates of the ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR 17 (ARR17) orthologue in the male-specific region of the Y chromosome. These duplicates give rise to small RNAs apparently causing male-specific DNA methylation and silencing of the ARR17 gene. CRISPR–Cas9-induced mutations demonstrate that ARR17 functions as a sex switch, triggering female development when on and male development when off. Despite repeated turnover events, including a transition from the XY system to a ZW system, the sex-specific regulation of ARR17 is conserved across the poplar genus and probably beyond. Our data reveal how a single-gene-based mechanism of dioecy can enable highly dynamic sex-linked regions and contribute to maintaining recombination and integrity of sex chromosomes.
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| 3. |
- Mähler, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
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Gene co-expression network connectivity is an important determinant of selective constraint
- 2017
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Ingår i: PLOS Genetics. - : PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE. - 1553-7390 .- 1553-7404. ; 13:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While several studies have investigated general properties of the genetic architecture of natural variation in gene expression, few of these have considered natural, outbreeding populations. In parallel, systems biology has established that a general feature of biological networks is that they are scale-free, rendering them buffered against random mutations. To date, few studies have attempted to examine the relationship between the selective processes acting to maintain natural variation of gene expression and the associated co-expression network structure. Here we utilised RNA-Sequencing to assay gene expression in winter buds undergoing bud flush in a natural population of Populus tremula, an outbreeding forest tree species. We performed expression Quantitative Trait Locus (eQTL) mapping and identified 164,290 significant eQTLs associating 6,241 unique genes (eGenes) with 147,419 unique SNPs (eSNPs). We found approximately four times as many local as distant eQTLs, with local eQTLs having significantly higher effect sizes. eQTLs were primarily located in regulatory regions of genes (UTRs or flanking regions), regardless of whether they were local or distant. We used the gene expression data to infer a co-expression network and investigated the relationship between network topology, the genetic architecture of gene expression and signatures of selection. Within the co-expression network, eGenes were underrepresented in network module cores (hubs) and overrepresented in the periphery of the network, with a negative correlation between eQTL effect size and network connectivity. We additionally found that module core genes have experienced stronger selective constraint on coding and non-coding sequence, with connectivity associated with signatures of selection. Our integrated genetics and genomics results suggest that purifying selection is the primary mechanism underlying the genetic architecture of natural variation in gene expression assayed in flushing leaf buds of P. tremula and that connectivity within the co-expression network is linked to the strength of purifying selection.
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| 4. |
- Schneider, Andreas N., et al.
(författare)
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Comparative Fungal Community Analyses Using Metatranscriptomics and Internal Transcribed Spacer Amplicon Sequencing from Norway Spruce
- 2021
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Ingår i: mSystems. - : American Society for Microbiology. - 2379-5077. ; 6:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The health, growth, and fitness of boreal forest trees are impacted and improved by their associated microbiomes. Microbial gene expression and functional activity can be assayed with RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data from host samples. In contrast, phylogenetic marker gene amplicon sequencing data are used to assess taxonomic composition and community structure of the microbiome. Few studies have considered how much of this structural and taxonomic information is included in transcriptomic data from matched samples. Here, we described fungal communities using both host-derived RNA-Seq and fungal ITS1 DNA amplicon sequencing to compare the outcomes between the methods. We used a panel of root and needle samples from the coniferous tree species Picea abies (Norway spruce) growing in untreated (nutrient-deficient) and nutrient-enriched plots at the Flakaliden forest research site in boreal northern Sweden. We show that the relationship between samples and alpha and beta diversity indicated by the fungal transcriptome is in agreement with that generated by the ITS data, while also identifying a lack of taxonomic overlap due to limitations imposed by current database coverage. Furthermore, we demonstrate how metatranscriptomics data additionally provide biologically informative functional insights. At the community level, there were changes in starch and sucrose metabolism, biosynthesis of amino acids, and pentose and glucuronate interconversions, while processing of organic macromolecules, including aromatic and heterocyclic compounds, was enriched in transcripts assigned to the genus Cortinarius.IMPORTANCE A deeper understanding of microbial communities associated with plants is revealing their importance for plant health and productivity. RNA extracted from plant field samples represents the host and other organisms present. Typically, gene expression studies focus on the plant component or, in a limited number of studies, expression in one or more associated organisms. However, metatranscriptomic data are rarely used for taxonomic profiling, which is currently performed using amplicon approaches. We created an assembly-based, reproducible, and hardware-agnostic workflow to taxonomically and functionally annotate fungal RNA-Seq data obtained from Norway spruce roots, which we compared to matching ITS amplicon sequencing data. While we identified some limitations and caveats, we show that functional, taxonomic, and compositional insights can all be obtained from RNA-Seq data. These findings highlight the potential of metatranscriptomics to advance our understanding of interaction, response, and effect between host plants and their associated microbial communities.
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| 5. |
- Giacomello, Stefania, et al.
(författare)
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High spatial resolution profiling in tree species
- 2019
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Ingår i: Annual Plant Reviews Online. - : Wiley. - 2639-3832. ; 2:1, s. 329-359
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Until recently, the majority of genomics assays have been performed on bulk tissue samples containing multiple cell types. Tissues such as the wood formation zone in trees contain a complex mix of cell types organised in three-dimensional space. Moreover, cells within the wood formation zone represent a continual developmental progression from meristematic cambial initials through to cell death. This spatiotemporal developmental gradient and cell type information are not assayed by bulk samples. New and improved sampling methods coupled to next-generation sequencing assays are enabling the generation of high spatial resolution and single-cell transcriptomics data, offering unprecedented insight into the biology of unique cell types and cell developmental programs.We overview the application of these approaches to the study of wood development, in particular, and highlight challenges associated with the analysis of such data.
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| 6. |
- Lin, Yao-Cheng, et al.
(författare)
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Functional and evolutionary genomic inferences in Populus through genome and population sequencing of American and European aspen
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : NATL ACAD SCIENCES. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 115:46, s. E10970-E10978
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Populus genus is one of the major plant model systems, but genomic resources have thus far primarily been available for poplar species, and primarily Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray), which was the first tree with a whole-genome assembly. To further advance evolutionary and functional genomic analyses in Populus, we produced genome assemblies and population genetics resources of two aspen species, Populus tremula L. and Populus tremuloides Michx. The two aspen species have distributions spanning the Northern Hemisphere, where they are keystone species supporting a wide variety of dependent communities and produce a diverse array of secondary metabolites. Our analyses show that the two aspens share a similar genome structure and a highly conserved gene content with P. trichocarpa but display substantially higher levels of heterozygosity. Based on population resequencing data, we observed widespread positive and negative selection acting on both coding and noncoding regions. Furthermore, patterns of genetic diversity and molecular evolution in aspen are influenced by a number of features, such as expression level, coexpression network connectivity, and regulatory variation. To maximize the community utility of these resources, we have integrated all presented data within the PopGenIE web resource (PopGenIE.org).
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| 7. |
- Schiffthaler, Bastian, et al.
(författare)
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BatchMap : A parallel implementation of the OneMap R package for fast computation of F-1 linkage maps in outcrossing species
- 2017
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 12:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the rapid advancement of high throughput sequencing, large numbers of genetic markers can be readily and cheaply acquired, but most current software packages for genetic map construction cannot handle such dense input. Modern computer architectures and server farms represent untapped resources that can be used to enable higher marker densities to be processed in tractable time. Here we present a pipeline using a modified version of OneMap that parallelizes over bottleneck functions and achieves substantial speedups for producing a high density linkage map (N = 20,000). Using simulated data we show that the outcome is as accurate as the traditional pipeline. We further demonstrate that there is a direct relationship between the number of markers used and the level of deviation between true and estimated order, which in turn impacts the final size of a genetic map.
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| 8. |
- Schiffthaler, Bastian, et al.
(författare)
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An integrated functional genomics and systems genetics analysis of leaf shape in Populus tremula
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Leaf shape is an important component of our relationship with the living world, representing a defining feature of how we recognise and classify plant species. There is extensive variation in the form and function of leaves within and between species. In the current study we utilised variation in leaf shape represented among individuals of a collection of Eurasian aspen (Populus tremula L.) sampled across Sweden and the remarkable extent of heterophylly present to establish morphological, cellular and transcriptional developmental time lines. We performed gene expression network and phenotypical regression analyses to identify genes of central importance or that were highly predictive of shape and size phenotypes during leaf development using a systems biology approach. We complemented this developmental study with a genome wide association study of leaf shape variation to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with leaf shape and size, their genomic context and the biological role of associated genes. We then compared these association candidate genes to differentially expressed genes between groups of genotypes with highly contrasting leaf shapes, also considering whether there were expression quantitative trait loci associated with the genes. We demonstrate that our developmental gene expression series captured known biology for homologs of functionally characterised Arabidopsis thaliana genes and biological processes of importance during leaf development. We identified genes of high importance from the developmental series and natural variation analyses. These included genes with characterised functions in leaf development in addition to many novel candidates. Our systems genetics approach identified numerous genes supported by the developmental time series, phenotypic and expression association mapping and differential expression between phenotypic extremes. As such, we describe a rich resource for directing future functional characterisation studies and a comprehensive data resource characterising the role of gene expression during leaf development in aspen.
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| 9. |
- Akhter, Shirin, et al.
(författare)
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Transcriptome studies of the early cone-setting acrocona mutant provide evidence for a functional conservation of the age-dependent flowering pathway between angiosperms and gymnosperms.
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- All seed plants go through a juvenile period before they initiate seed- and pollen-bearing organs and reproduce. Reproductive phase-change is well characterized in angiosperm model species, but much less well described in gymnosperms. Here, we utilize the early cone-setting acrocona mutant to study reproductive phase change in the conifer Picea abies; a representative of the gymnosperm lineage. The acrocona mutant frequently initiates cone-like structures, called transition shoots, in positions where wild-type P. abies always produces vegetative shoots. By sequence analysis of mRNA and microRNA transcripts, we demonstrate that orthologous components of the Age-dependent flowering pathway are active at the time of cone initiation. We show that a member of the SQUAMOSA BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) gene family, PaSPL7, is active in reproductive meristems, whereas a putative negative regulator of PaSPL7, microRNA156 is upregulated in vegetative meristem. By allele-specific assembly, we also identify a short nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the miRNA156 binding of PaSPL7. By genotyping a segregating population of inbred acrocona trees, we show a clear co-segregation between the early cone-setting phenotype and trees homozygous for the SNP. Hence, the data presented demonstrate evolutionary conservation of the age-dependent flowering pathway and involvement of this pathway in regulating cone-setting in the conifer P. abies.
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| 10. |
- Jokipii-Lukkari, Soile, et al.
(författare)
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NorWood : a gene expression resource for evo-devo studies of conifer wood development
- 2017
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 216:2, s. 482-494
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The secondary xylem of conifers is composed mainly of tracheids that differ anatomically and chemically from angiosperm xylem cells. There is currently no high-spatial-resolution data available profiling gene expression during wood formation for any coniferous species, which limits insight into tracheid development.RNA-sequencing data from replicated, high-spatial-resolution section series throughout the cambial and woody tissues of Picea abies were used to generate the NorWood.conGenIE.org web resource, which facilitates exploration of the associated gene expression profiles and co-expression networks.Integration within PlantGenIE.org enabled a comparative regulomics analysis, revealing divergent co-expression networks between P. abies and the two angiosperm species Arabidopsis thaliana and Populus tremula for the secondary cell wall (SCW) master regulator NAC Class IIB transcription factors. The SCW cellulose synthase genes (CesAs) were located in the neighbourhoods of the NAC factors in A. thaliana and P. tremula, but not in P. abies. The NorWood co-expression network enabled identification of potential SCW CesA regulators in P. abies.The NorWood web resource represents a powerful community tool for generating evo-devo insights into the divergence of wood formation between angiosperms and gymnosperms and for advancing understanding of the regulation of wood development in P. abies.
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