Differential genomic expression profiles in Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis, A. St.-Hil.).

FAY J.V; LITWINIUK S.; TALAVERA STEFANI L.; ARGÜELLES C.; FERRERAS J.; MIRETTI M.

Ribeirao Preto

Congreso; International Congress of Genetics; 2017

SBG. Sociedade Brasilera de Genética

Differential genomic expression profiles in Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis, A. St.-Hil.) Fay Jessica. V, Litwiniuk S., Talavera Stefani L.N., Argüelles C.F., Ferreras J.A., Miretti M.M Grupo de Investigación en Genética Aplicada (GIGA), Instituto de Biología Subtropical (IBS) Nodo Posadas, Universidad Nacional de Misiones (UNaM-CONICET). Posadas, Misiones, Argentina Yerba Mate, Transcriptome, Differential Expression ?Yerba Mate? (Aquifoliaceae) is a native tree cultivated in South America. The manufacture/production of dried Yerba Mate (YM) leaves drives regional economies in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Reports demonstrated that YM infusions contain secondary metabolites with relevant pharmacological properties. Global gene expression profiling provides a key insight into the plant physiology underlying relevant phenotypic features, namely dry leaves yield and contents, responses to environmental and biological factors. In this study we evaluated differences in gene expression profiles among tissues derived from 15 YM RNA-Seq libraries. To estimate relative expression activity across tissues (leaves, root and seedling), paired-end reads from each RNAseq library were aligned to a de novo transcriptome assembly using Bowtie 2 package and read counts estimated with RSEM software. Differential gene expression analysis was performed using DESeq v1.14.1 software. From ~20,000 unigenes, approximately 2/3 and 1/3 were up- and down-regulated in leaf vs root, respectively. As expected, in the 30 top transcripts with the most contrasting differential expression ?leaf vs root- up-regulated transcripts in leaf contains encoding proteins genes involved in Photosynthesis such as chlorophyll binding protein, oxygen evolving enhancer,light-harvesting complex, and heat shock proteins. Correlation plots and clustering analysis revealed (1) a coherent grouping of experimental replicas, (2) the presence of within-tissue inter-individual variations, and (3) significant differentially expressed genes among tissues (four-fold change, p-value cut-off of ≤ 0.001). Disparities between leaves were associated to genes involved in plant immunity, plant-pathogen interaction and synthesis of antioxidant compounds. Transcriptomic data generated are relevant set the context for further experiments. Funding Agency: INYM, CONICET, MINCYT